Captured Warriors
by makingitupasigetalong
Summary: Normally, the droids tried to kill the clones and Jedi. The droids capturing everyone? Unheard of. What possible motives could the Separatists have? Slavery? A prisoner of war camp? Medical Experiments? I guess they'll find out.
1. Capture

Rex knew when a fight wasn't going well. He was well aware that the entire legion was in a full retreat mode and that they were losing ground and men by the second. The strange thing was though, the droids weren't aiming to kill. They were shooting the clones in the arms and legs, slowing them down and incapacitating them, not killing them. It was killing the medics though; they were down men, supplies, and sleep. The entire legion was down to about 25 healthy guys.

The fight they were currently losing was in a clearing in the middle of a wooded area. It would've been beautiful had a fight not been going on there. They hadn't eaten since a breakfast of frozen ration before leaving the emergency med bay the medics had erected to care for the wounded.

"This is so unfair!" Jesse yelled. "We missed lunch, we missed dinner, now we're missing not-really-midnight-snacks."

"Not-really-midnight-snacks!?" Exclaimed Rex. "Have you all been sneaking into the mess hall again?"

"I don't want to answer that." Said Echo.

"Well there's your answer Rex." Laughed Anakin.

"Master we can't lose any more ground" Ahsoka panted as she got back on her feet as she finished of another round of battle droids.

"We have to push forward now" Anakin agreed, "Rally the men"

"Sir with all due respect-there's almost no one to rally" Fives screamed. "Everyone's either back at the med bay or is MIA"

"He's right sir" Echo called out. "The medics couldn't get to all the wounded, we have no idea where half of the men are or if they're alive"

"Sir the air strike is coming in" Jesse cried.

"I haven't called it in yet, It's one of theirs" Rex added.

Anakin stopped slicing droids for a moment. "I want everyone to scatter, find cover, now move-go"

The troopers nodded and began sprinting madly in different directions. Rex took off North with Jesse and a few other clones right on his heels. Fives and Echo fist bumped before charging West and scaling a 12-foot tree. Ahsoka and Anakin ducked under a outcropping of large fallen timbers so as not to be seen by air.

"At the risk of sounding like Obi-wan, I'm not going to tell you to mediate right now Ahsoka. So instead I'm just going to advise you as your very experienced master that mediating would probably be a good thing right now."

"I would master, I really would, but we could be dead in the next few moments so…"Ahsoka trailed off. The fear in her eyes was unmistakable. She was only 14, but she knew what would happen if the droids placed their missiles well. She knew what would happen to her or to any of her men if they were captured.

"Ahsoka, breathe." Anakin ordered. "The trees above our heads are structurally sound; I had Rex scan them this morning."

"When did either of you have time for that?"

"It's an inside joke. In the early years of the war, I just used to have Rex conduct scans of random things. Trees, ships, the inside of bars…it was just something we used to do."

The tree trunks began shaking violently as the missiles rained down on them. Anakin pressed himself into the wall and tried to watch Ahsoka out of the corner of his eye. She could almost predict the way the cavern would shake and move her body with it to prevent being tossed to the floor. It was a skill that would serve her well.

The shaking stopped suddenly.

"That wasn't so bad" Ahsoka said with a smile. "You looked a little shaky though-pun intended"

"Ha-ha" retorted Anakin. "I'm going to call Kix at the med-bay. I want to find what their overall status is"

"Have fun, I sincerely doubt Kix got his morning cup of caf"'

"May the force be with me" Anakin agreed. " I want you to call Rex and the rest of the men. Let's find out who's ready for round two."

"This is Commander Tano to. Anyone really. Is everyone good?"

"All fine here Commander." Came Rex's voice over her comm. "Jesse and some others are with me. I've been trying to contact Fives and Echo neither of whom are responding and I don't think there are any bars in the area so that rules that option out."

Ahsoka chuckled. " I'll see if I can raise them on any of the channels. Have you heard from Kix or any of the medics by any chance? Master Skywalker's trying to contact them now and judging by how he's taking apart his comm I'd say he's not having that much luck"

Now it was Rex's turn to chuckle.

"I haven't heard anything since this morning. I'm sure they're fine. Kix is probably holding them all hostage until he gets some caf. Don't worry little'un."

She nodded. "Ahsoka out" She mentally imagined Rex would be doing the same.

"Rex out"

Ahsoka casually strolled over to Anakin.

"Rex and all the others are good, except for Fives and Echo. He hasn't heard from them. He also said he'd try to get into contact with anyone at the med bay."

Anakin frowned. "Are there any bars in the area? Normally Echo's pretty good but Fives can drive anyone to drink."

"Why does everyone keep saying that about them?" Pondered Ahsoka.

"I'll tell you when your older. C'mon, we got to hustle before the droids start sweeping this place to look for our bodies."

"Master please tell me you actually have a plan this time."

"Of course I have a plan Snips. It's a brilliant plan and that brilliant plan is we make up an even more brilliant plan while we're finding Rex and the others. It's totally fool-proof"

" I was afraid you'd say that"

''Let's ride Ahsoka, let's ride"

* * *

Fives knew every type of pain there was. He knew the emotional pain of watching those you loved be harmed and die. He knew the physical pain of a blaster shot wound or of a morning live fire exercises with Rex. He also knew the pain of a really bad hangover but we won't go into that. This was a whole new pain though.

Fives groaned as he opened his eyes. "Where am I and why do I feel like I've been hit with a truck?"

"You kind of were" Said a familiar voice.

"Kix!" Fives sat up quickly, and promptly banged his head on the low metal roof of his….cage. He was in a fucking cage. He looked at Kix, who stood directly outside his new dwelling. Other empty cages lined the cell walls.

"What happened?" He mouthed.

"Capture" Kix mouthed back. "They raided the med-bay 5 minutes after you guys left this morning. We never stood a chance. They gave anyone who could still fight minor wounds except the medics. Now they've got us running around trying to patch you all up."

"Droids stormed the med-bay? You guys got overwhelmed by droids?"

"There were some humanoid looking people also. But yeah droids. The human seppies are the ones having all the medics still working. They said they wanted everyone in decent condition by morning."

"How the hell are you guys preforming first aid in these conditions?"

"We're passing bacta patches through the bars. It's sort of working." Kix replied.

"Who else do they have?" Fives whispered, almost afraid to know the answer.

"Not Echo, you're the only one they have right now from the group that left this morning. The men who've been MIA for the past few days are here too. They've literally got everyone."

"And you haven't fought back yet because…"

Kix shot him a look. "We all don't just have matching faces anymore, now we're all sporting matching friendship necklaces."

"Friendship necklaces?"

"Shock collars you moron, if any of us try anything everyone in the immediate vicinity gets fried. "

"Ahh, so do we know why we're all being kept alive?" Fives asked with uncertainty.

"Nope. There are theories of course, the most prominate being we're all bound for a prisoner of war camp. But then they wouldn't be having the medics try to patch you all up, so I'm leaning towards the Seppies either need new test subjects or, they need money so they're going to sell us all to slavers."

"Wonderful." Muttered Fives.

"I know, be strong brother. I'll come check on you next chance I get. You're lucky, you get some peace and quiet all alone."

"What everyone else gets cellmates? That's so not fair!"

Kix laughed. Fives could tell it was the first time he'd smiled all day.

"Get some rest. I'll be back soon."

"Sir yes Sir" Fives said before curling into a tiny ball.

* * *

"Master, we need to slow down. It's getting to dark to see anything." Ahsoka panted as the dynamic duo vaulted over yet another fallen tree.

"I know you're tired Snips, I am too. We'll make camp as soon as we find Rex and the others."

Anakin's comm crackled.

"Sir… Rex… found Echo. ….He's alright…..No luck reaching med bay….."

Anakin tapped his comm.

"Rex, come in Rex, All I'm getting from you is static. Our comms are being jammed."

"That's not good." Ahsoka stated.

"No it's very good." said a commando droid. "You've all walked straight into our traps. Every single one of you." Commando droids began coming out from fallen trees, jumping down from tall heights, and emerging from the dark.

Ahsoka and Anakin quickly moved back to back.

"Any of you want to surrender now and make it easier for yourselves?" Ahsoka sneered.

If droids laughed Ahsoka suspected that's what they were doing. Two Jedi verses a horde of commando droids. She and Anakin were both exhausted, the droids were fresh and strong. This was not a fight they could win. This was a fight they could survive, but they could not win.

"Surrender" Said one of the droids.

"Never" replied Anakin. "Ahsoka, you ready, we can go down fighting."

"I wasn't really planning on going down at all Master."

"That's the spirit my young padawan."

"If you will not surrender, you will be forcefully captured." Interrupted the droid who appeared to be in charge.

"Guess so" Muttered Ahsoka before igniting her lightsaber.

"Ahsoka du-" Anakin didn't have time to finish his sentence. Padawan and master had been distracted by the odd, and now they paid the price. A electra-net enveloped the two as they collapsed to the ground unconscious. The droids affixed shock collars around their necks and began dragging them back to the point where the pick up point.

 **A/N: Wow, I didn't actually think anyone would read this far. Anyone who reviews gets a shout out next chapter. This is my first fan fic so anything (even flames) are appreciated. Love. Rokawk**


	2. Conversations

The clones had fallen asleep in a giant huddle. It had been freezing in the woods that night and the clouds had opened up raining down on the cluster of men. The last time they had eaten had been that morning and even that had been soggy ration bars. Yes, It was a horrible morning and it was about to get a lot worse.

Jesse had been on watch when it began. A assailant had snuck up behind him, stunned him and dragged him into the bushes.

Echo was next; since he was sleeping a little way away from the group. Two new assailants grabbed his upper arms while a third pulled down the collar of his bodysuit before ramming a form of a taser on his neck. Echo shook for a moment but soon slumped forward. The two promptly dragged him into the woods.

The assailant who had tased Echo stood and faced the one who had dragged Jesse into the woods.

"Which one next?" He asked.

" Jif whisper, we wouldn't want to wake them up would we? As for who's next, the rest are all close enough together that we can get them with an electra-net. Notify Taz and Ray to bring the cannon back with them after they collar and cuff that clone." Jesse's attacker replied.

"Yes ma'am."

Taz and Ray returned carrying the eletra cannon between them. They set it down and looked to their leader.

"Which one should take the brunt of the electricity ma'am?" Taz asked as he began to power up the cannon.

"The leader." She stated with no hesitation. "It's what he would want."

"You're too nice" Scoffed Ray. "Can't we target one of the weaker looking ones? I like hearing them scream."

The leader looked at him. "Of course you do." She sighed. "You'll be hearing them all scream soon. Target the leader. That's an order."

"Ma'am which ones the leader?" Questioned Taz.

"The blond one" She answered. "I heard some of our captives making jokes about his hair color."

"I think his name's Rex or something?" Said the one who tased Echo.

"Jif, trust me. Don't learn their names. Don't think of them as people. It makes the job easier." She gently scolded.

"Yes ma'am, but how is that any different than you saying the leader would prefer to take the brunt of the pain for his men."

"I'm doing him a favor one CO to another. We have a mission. Doing this for them won't interfere with that mission. Thinking of them as anything other than just another mission objective does."

"Oh, I get it now. Thank you ma'am."

She nodded. "You're welcome Jif. Taz are we ready to go?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Pull the lever then Taz."

She turned away for this part. She couldn't stand the terror and pain that was always seen in the eyes of her targets as they were being netted.

As soon as the screams died away she and her men began to drag the clones onto the shuttle they had stashed in the woods.

And that was that, the entire legion captured in about 5 days. The Separatist heads would be very pleased with them. 

* * *

Kix was dying a little inside. He and about 7 other medics were running around the prison area of a ship, trying to save their brothers for whatever unknown horror was coming their way, they had barely enough supplies for the wounded they did have and then the general and commander had gotten captured last night.

"Fives, Fives wake up" Kix rattled his brother's cell. "Fives now"

"What?" Fives asked without even opening his eyes.

"They got Rex and the others. I overheard a conversation between 2 of the commando droids."

"And you think they didn't stage this?!"

"We know they got the General and Commander Tano last night. Some others and I saw them being dragged into cells. If they got Jedi what hope did a bunch of clones have?"

"Not much" admitted Fives. "Did the general and commander look ok?"

"Yeah, Commander Tano wasn't hit as hard. She awake, alert and oriented last time I spoke to her. General Skywalker looked alright. They wouldn't let me see him but I think he's ok. They're both alone too just so you know you're not the only one being picked on. Anyway you're probably going to have some cellmates soon so I'll need you to catch them up to speed with everything we know"

"Damn I hope some of them got away. Echo's a pretty fast sprinter, maybe he escaped or something."

"Maybe, but Fives, the next few hours may be very painful for all of us so just be wary-"

Fives laughed. "Oh brother you have no idea the places my mind has been going in terms of where we may end up. This is why having a cell to yourself isn't a good thing. Now I know how the general feels every time he gets captured"

Kix gave a knowing smile. "I should go, I've got a shiny that's got a blaster wound that just won't heal properly. I've got about 3 bacta pacts on it and it just won't seal."

Fives bit his lip. "I've heard about something like that before. Take all the bacta off and rewrap it in sterile bandages. It should seal itself after about 4 hours. What's his name?"

"Leaps- thanks brother, I'll come back soon, you're my only sanity right now."

"How bad is it out there that I'm the only sanity"

"Bad" Said Kix as he walked out, leaving Fives alone with his thoughts about the future.

Kix left and headed down the hall. He and the other medics had been given a little supplies by their captors but nothing on the magnitude they needed. He had to go check on Leaps and then he wanted to give everyone one last check before they inevitably stuck him in a cage like the rest of his brothers. But first things first, Leaps and his other brothers needed him now.

If only he could remember which cell had which cages which held which clone.

If only there was enough supplies.

If only there were enough medics.

If only none of them had ever been captured in the first place.

* * *

Anakin had tried every trick he knew to escape. There were only a few things he hated, among them were: long council meetings where he was getting yelled at, slavery, and being captured. He kept trying to bash his neck against the metal; he was that desperate to get the shock collar of his neck. Anakin knew that if he gave up hope he was done. He wouldn't lose himself, he couldn't forget who he was. He was a Jedi, and Jedi didn't give up.

He slumped down, defeated for the moment but he very well knew he would get back up in a few minutes. His momentary rest was cut short when his cell door slid open and in walked one of the human separatists.

Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun atop her head and she was wearing black battle fatigues. Her belt was loaded with weapons and she could clearly use all of them with deadly accuracy. But that wasn't the thing he noticed about her, the first thing he noticed about her was the intensity of her stare. Anakin opened his mouth to try to begin negotiations with her or to try to figure out where he was; but she clearly had other plans.

"You're men are all fine. So's your padawan." She said before pulling a taser of her belt and without even breaking eye contact plunged it into his neck. Anakin had just enough time to think _that could've gone better._

* * *

Echo opened his eyes and blinked. This most certainly wasn't the forest clearing where he and the others had fallen asleep the night before. This was a small uncomfortable metal cage. He looked around and saw multiple cages lining the walls and stcked on top of one another, all with a clone crammed into them. He was the only one awake except for-

"Fives!" Echo cried joyously.

"Echo! I missed you!"

" Fives, where the hell are we and why didn't you wake me up?"

"You looked exhausted when they hauled you in, you guys all did, We're on the Seppie ship. In their detention area. We don't know what they're going to do to us, though I suspect dinner and bedtime stories aren't in the realm of possibly. Also, everyone from the med bay is here too."

"Are they all ok?"

"Pretty much. Almost everyone got a little banged up during the fight so the seppies are having all the medics run around and patch them all up. Kix says they've got everyone out of the danger zone except a shiny."

" If they're letting the medics patch everyone up maybe they really will give us dinner and a bedtime story. What's the kid's name?"

"Leaps. The wound won't seal properly, and yes I already told him to go take the bacta off and wrap it in sterile bandages soyou can rest easy in the knowledge that all that info in your head was finally useful."

"No fair, now you'll get the credit."

"Should've gotten captured earlier Echo, you're always late."

"Yeah guess I am." Echo muttered. "Wait-Where's Rex?"

"I assumed he got away. You're positive he got caught?" Fives answered.

"They got the rest of us. Why wouldn't they have gotten him too?"

"Different cell maybe?" Suggested Fives. "Anyway, how did you guys get caught?"

"Ask Jesse, he was the one on watch."

"But Jesse's asleep."

"You wake sleeping people up all the time. Besides, we may not all have much good time left together."

"Hey Jesse," Fives called out softly. "Jess, Jess-y, ohhhh Jesse. JESSE WAKE UP"

"No." Jesse complained. "5 more minutes. I don't want to do exercise."

"Jesse no one is going to make you do exercises buddy." Commented Fives.

"We just want to know how you screwed up and got us captured." Added Echo

Jesse opened his eyes. "Fives got his own ass captured. As for us, someone came out of the bushes and stunned me before I could warn you all."

"Someone? Not a commando droid?" Noticed Echo.

"Yeah. Humanoid. Female I think."

Fives nodded. "Kix said there were some human seppies."

Jesse perked up. "Kix is here?"

Fives laughed. "Dude, Everyone's here. The Jedi are here too."

"Wow." Jesse leaned back. "We're in trouble aren't we?" He murmured.

"Probably." Fives whispered back.

"We should wake the others. They'd want to know what's going on and we should be together." Said Echo.

"How do you guys want to do it?" Fives asked with an evil grin.

"Let's be nice." Laughed Jesse.

"Just this once we'll be nice." Echo said with a nod. "Nest time we're back in the barracks we'll dump water on them or something."

"Next time." Breathed Fives. "I hope there'll be a next time."

It took a little while, but eventually, they managed to wake every trooper up and explain what was going on. The group knocked around theories for what would happen to them for a little while.

"But how do we know they won't just tell us bedtime stories" Laughed a trooper named Speed.

"We don't." Fives said with a grin.

"What if they torture us? What if they sell us to slavers?" Pointed out Echo.

"You're such an optimist." Denal said.

"Let's go back to bedtime stories" Protested Speed.

They discussed fond memories from the past.

"Wait so you pranked the general and Senator Amidala and you didn't get caught? How did you do that?" Asked Fives.

"How do you eat ration bars without gagging is the bigger question" Said Denal.

"That shit is not natural." Agreed Speed.

And they discussed the most important question of all: Where was Rex.

"At a bar laughing at all of us no doubt" Teased Fives.

"No way," Echo grinned. "I bet one of the seppies liked him."

"Bro don't go there!" Cried Jesse.

"GO THERE, GO THERE" Howled Speed.

"Guys, he's probably just in another cell because he's a commanding officer." Denal said.

"Killjoy" muttered another trooper.

Overall the brothers laughed and kept all dark thoughts at the back of their minds. Whatever came, they would face it together.

* * *

Ahsoka paced her cell floor worriedly. Kix and another medic had stopped in earlier to fill her in on what was going on. In short, they weren't sure, but the future was bleak unless they could figure out means of escape, and they would have to do it soon. She could sense their time was running out.

 **Shout outs to Lux's Sister and Valsheress for their reviews. Next update will probably be Thursday June 11. Same as always reviewers get shout outs.**

 **Have a good night y'all.**


	3. Knock Out

Kix was slowly dying again. He and the other medics had finally been forced into cages and they hadn't even gotten to put up a big fight. It wasn't the fact that he was now locked up in a cage that got him, but the fact now he had to be with all the medics. It wasn't that he didn't love his medic brothers; he loved them very much, it's just that they were so flipping annoying sometimes.

"I'm bored." Complained a younger medic named Frisk. "Can we try to break out and blow some stuff up?"

"You can try." Said Kix as he leaned back in his cage _. No, not your cage. They just stuck you in here for a bit. You'll be out soon_. He told himself.

"You ok brother?" Coric asked.

"I think so, I'm just scared." Replied Kix. "I don't like cages."

"None of us do buddy. Hang tough, we'll get out of here soon." Coric soothed.

Frisk bolted upright. "I smell knock out gas."

"You can't smell knock out gas." Protested another medic called Burner. "It's not supposed to smell like- Oh my god you're right it's knock out gas."

"Guys chill, I'm sure-yep that is knock out gas." Declared Coric.

"Get it together guys." Ordered the senior among them, Boxer. "And call it anesthesia. We're medics, we know this stuff."

"Knock out gas is easier to say and more accurate." Pointed out another medic called Mixer.

"This isn't good." Muttered Kix.

"Thank you captain obvious!" Shouted Frisk.

"Rex is Captain Obvious! He's just obvious!" Cried Burner.

"Guys the others are out already-why aren't we out already?" Frisk right before he collapsed unconscious.

"WE'RE THE LAST 2!" Shouted Burner. "Wait, I'm feeling kinda tired." And Burner too collapsed.

"Idiots, I love you all but sometimes the fact that you're medics scares me" Kix muttered to himself as he took one last breath and fell asleep.

* * *

Rex had the worst headache of his life and that was saying something since he worked with the shinies on a daily basis. He had woken up about a half hour ago and had since been spending his time leaning against the back of his cage facing the door to try to intimidate whoever came in. No one was coming, he had to accept that. He had been stuck in a cage to starve until he would give the separatists the information they wanted. He never would. He knew that. Giving them the information would only harm his brothers. Rex closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the cage. Don't break no matter what…

There were very few things the clones feared. From their birth's they were taught to accept the fact that they or their brothers may die at any given moment. After living with that fear for a while, you just got used to it. But there was one fear none of the clones would ever admit to: being alone. From the moment they were born, the clones were surrounded by each other. They ate together, they slept together, and they fought and nearly died together. It wasn't as bad for the commanders and captains, since they all had their own rooms and slept alone during missions, but it was still pretty bad. Rex missed his brothers. He missed their sarcasm, their jokes, and their overall manner. Family is a funny thing like that, they may drive you crazy but you love them deep down.

Most of the clones had developed manners of keeping themselves entertained in situations like these. Rex tended to just close his eyes and try to zone out if he was alone. Sometimes he would just think up the most random funny memories training with Cody and the others or the missions when nothing had gone right but it all worked out in the end.

Rex took a deep breath and immediately gagged.

"Knock out gas-fuck" He muttered. Were he in the field and in current possession of his helmet this would not be an issue. The air filters would take care of it and he could get back to chasing after the general.

But he didn't have his helmet, and there was already to much in his system to fake it, so he just took a deep breath and hoped he would wake up.

* * *

The other clones were still theorizing about Rex's location when a laugh forced Echo to take a deep breath and then he got a panicked look in his eye. He began flashing the hand signal for knock out gas. Fives saw it immediately and began to do the same.

"Fake it." Whispered Jesse. "Except for you Speed. You're too hyperactive. You'd giggle."

Speed smiled and nodded and began breathing deeply enough to make any jedi proud. His head soon dropped and all the others risked a last breath of air before pretending to be unconscious.

 _This isn't going to end well_. Echo thought to himself as he lay with his head on the floor. _Not at all_. They had no signal to stop the charade of playing dead, they had no weapons, this was a disaster waiting to happen. They should've all just breathed the knock out gas and hoped for the best.

Echo heard the cell door open and people come in. He figured droid by the sound of them, resisting the urge to open his eyes and look at them was the hardest thing ever. Scratch that, keeping his body limps when they dragged him out of the cage would be.

Speed was the first to go. Everyone heard the door to his cage clank open and his body being dragged out. He was tossed to the ground and Echo opened his eye just a slit, just enough to see what was going on. The seppie was crouching over his body. He appeared to be doing something involving his wrist and a data pad, but Echo couldn't be sure. As soon as he was done doing whatever he was doing with Speed's wrist, he steeped back and nodded at the 2 commando droids with her. The droids seized Speed's arms and dragged him out of the cell. The female seppie moved onto the next cage, Jesse.

He repeated the same process by throwing him down to the ground and doing something to his wrist. But unlike last time, he leaned back. He pulled a taser of his belt and plunged it deep into Jesse's back. Jesse screamed as Echo slammed his eyes closed. He really didn't want to see the look on Jesse's face.

Jesse's screams soon faded and Echo reopened his eyes. The seppie stood back and the droids repeated the process.

As they were dragging Jesse out he turned toward Denal's cage. He threw Denal to the ground and bent over his wrist. After a second he stood up and nodded to the droids. He must've not held his breath and been knocked out.

Echo breathed in sharply, Fives was next. He couldn't turn his head to watch his brother with out revealing that he was still awake so he simply shut his eyes and hoped the seppie wouldn't electrocute Fives.

He waited to hear the inevitable of Fives's scream and he prepared to resist the urge that would come with hearing that scream to throw himself against the cage's side and shout some choice words.

But instead of simply laying on the ground, Fives jumped up and punched the seppie hard. He had forgotten about the 2 commando droids though. They grabbed his arms and hoisted him up a foot off the ground. Fives let out a tiny grasp of pain as his arms were twisted. The seppie rubbed his jaw angrily and pulled the taser of his belt once more. Fives's escape attempt may have been a failure but he wasn't done yet. He was kicking his legs madly at the seppie. He however, was clearly done. The taser was rammed into his throat. Fives's screams of pain was something none of them were likely to forget anytime soon.

Echo tried to slow his breaths as the seppie approached his cage. He stopped short.

"Nice try but I've seen better." He muttered before pressing the taser onto the metal of all the cages. Echo and the others were out within seconds.

* * *

Ahsoka, to prevent from losing her mind due to boredom, had started mentally doodling on the ceiling. So far she had drawn both her and Anakin's light sabers, Rex's twin blasters, she had then realized she wanted to mentally draw something more than weapons, so she had started going through every tattoo she had seen on the clones and trying to figure out she would've drawn it. After about 15 minutes she had come to the conclusion Five's tattoos were the only ones she even had a chance at.

Ahsoka sat up and wrapped her arms around herself. And did s double take. She could smell it. Knock out gas. Flip.

Ahsoka stood up and sucked in a gasp of air. She then knelt down and began feel along the walls for the vent where the gas was coming from.

Have to find it, have to find it. Ahsoka stopped and coughed. She was running out of time. Her fingers collided with raised metal and she leaned up against the area.

"Points for effort." Said the female human seppie at the door to the cell. "But we need you unconscious for the next part of this show. And I won't be stopped by a kid who thinks she's smart by blocking the vent." Ahsoka's mind flashed back to when Kix had told her about the female seppie. He had said she seemed compassionate and sympathetic one moment but cruel and heartless the next. Before Ahsoka could do anything she pressed a button on it's belt. "Nighty-night" She sassed.

The shock collar around Ahsoka's neck turned on. She fell to the ground screaming and crying.

"Stop fighting it." The seppie said as she walked into the cell. "It stops hurting as soon as you stop fighting."

"I will never stop fighting." Ahsoka growled.

"Have it your way kid." Said the seppie as she pulled a taser off her belt. "I'll give you one last chance. Stop fighting. This thing hurts 10x more than that collar. If any of your men were still awake I'd have them tell you."

"What did you do to them?" Ahsoka sobbed as she curled up into a ball.

"You'll find out soon enough." She replied. "We don't think you know enough to even bother interrogating you. Now stop fighting it and let it knock you out."

Ahsoka twisted and withered on the ground. "Again…I won't stop."

"Your choice-not mine." The seppie looked at Ahsoka and then turned her head away. She pressed the taser into Ahsoka's arm. Ahsoka's screams went up a notch before she relaxed unconscious on the ground.

"I gave ya a chance kid." The seppie muttered as she dragged Ahsoka's body into the hallway and tossed her onto one of the carts filled with the bodies of clones and now a jedi. "I don't know why your kind always has to be so noble."

"Taz, we're are we in terms of awake clones?" She called out.

"We have 3 more cells to go ma'am. You should go check in with the heads. We'll be touching down at the Compound in about15 minutes. We'll also need to sedate the male jedi again ma'am."

"Have Ray do it if he's finished with the other cell. I'm going to check in with our bosses."

"Have fun ma'am."

She snorted. "A meeting with the heads fun…that'll be the day."

She opened her holo communicator.

"Lieutenant Cià to the heads" She proclaimed in a clear voice.

"Lieutenant Cià, what is your status?" The on duty head replied

"The mission is complete. I repeat the mission is complete. We have the 501 in custody. We are currently about 15 minutes away from entering the planets atmosphere which means we're 21 minutes away from touching down in the Compound. We've begun knocking most of the clones out but still have a few cells to go."

"Excellent. I will have some droids and others meet you at the landing platform."

"Thank you sir."

"You're welcome Lieutenant Cià"

 **Another chapter bites the dust. This was a fun one to write. Shout outs to AutumnLeaves03, Lewa Neor, Lux's Sister, Jay, and Random dude for their reviews. I know I said I'd update Thursday but…actually I don't have a good excuse. I just decided to update early. Shout outs to those who review. Have a good night y'all. (or it's morning where I live, so good morning too)**


	4. Ace and Explanations

Anakin was tied to a chair. It wasn't even a comfortable chair, more like a hard metal chair. He had come to after being knocked out again, in a new cell and tied to this stupid chair. He couldn't move at all. This would've been enough to drive him crazy except, the collar around his neck prevented him from using the force. He wouldn't of been able to escape with just one of those restrictions. What was the point of doing both? The lack of access to the force prevented him from escaping, and the shackles binding him the chair did the same. He supposed the purpose of this was to unnerve him and make him feel uncomfortable (and it was working) but it just felt so overdone. The female seppie had entered the room 15 minutes ago. Until about 3 minutes ago she had just stared at him uncomfortably. Then, she had proceeded to introduce herself as "Lieutenant Mika Cià of the Confederacy of Independent Systems."

"Do you just want to tell me the locations of some of your bases? It would save us a lot of trouble." She asked.

Anakin laughed. "We both know that I won't talk no matter what you do to me."

"Ok." Cià replied and strolled out of the cell to where Jif was waiting. He handed her a water bottle from which she casually took a swig.

"Are you going to go back in there?" He asked.

"Soon." She promised. "See how he's antsy and fidgety? That's good for us. I had him shackled up in addition to the collar because I knew it would annoy him. He hasn't eaten in a while; we'll keep him on the minimum prison rations for a few days. After that we'll offer him real food."

"Do you think he'll break then?"

"Unless I marked him wrong no. He has too much honor. He'll only break if it's someone else's life on the line, aka not his. He's not emotionally connected enough to any of his men to use them, so we use his padawan. In the meantime we work the clones and her. Literally and figuratively."

"Do you think the clones and the girl will break?"

"Not for a while. If we get really lucky we might break the girl early on. The clones will help her though. I've seen it before, when the padawan is with the clones they watch over the kid, they bond, and get close. It'll only make it harder for those who last longer though, that's why we allow it to happen."

"Is that why the 501st was chosen as our target? Because the jedi had a padawan?"

"Yep, and the clones have a bit of penchant for being stubborn as hell. Breaking them will send a mission we can break anyone. In addition the jedi is the chancellor's lap dog."

"Makes sense then. How long till we break them, do you think ma'am?"

"Depends on quite a few things. The last time we took a full legion was about 4 to 5 years ago. It took 2 months to break them all. Since then, we've taken a few companies at a time every month or so. They break quicker since they feel abandon."

"How has the republic not realized we're doing this?"

"We plan very carefully and get lucky."

"Makes sense."

"How are our other guests settling in?" She asked as the two began to walk down the dark hallway.

"Good, Ray's going to go check on them in an hour or so." Jif answered.

"There won't be any major ideas of escape yet. They don't yet know how bad it'll be for them here. They're still holding out hope the jedi will save them. Can't say I blame them, can you?"

"No ma'am."

"Alright, I have to choose where to assign the girl and the clones to break them. What do you think I should do?"

"I would put half of them to work in the plant making weapons to be used on their comrades and I would have the other half down in the mines."

"Gunning for the emotional break while angling for the physical one, smart. "

"Thank you ma'am"

"Kid, we'll make an interrogator out of you yet."

Jif smiled wide.

* * *

Speed shuddered and pulled himself tighter into a ball.

"Shhhh, It's ok. No one's here's going to hurt you," A voice murmured.

"Commander Tano?" Speed whispered.

"Yeah, That's me." Ahsoka answered.

Speed sat up and rubbed his eyes. Commander Tano sat next to him on a bunk bed; they were in what appeared to be a military style barrack with a row of beds against each wall. "What happened?" He muttered.

"Well Fives and Echo told me they pumped the cell you guys were in with knock out gas, Everyone else except you and Denal faked unconsciousness. The seppie zapped everyone-including me- with a taser. We woke up here. Which is strangely ironic if you think about it."

"Guess so." Grunted Speed. "Who else is up?"

"Fives, Echo, Jesse, and anyone they zapped. Denal, all of the medics and Rex are still out."

"But that's not the whole legion! Kix said they had the whole legion!"

"They're probably just in a different barrack-type-thing." Suggested Ahsoka.

"Where are Fives, Echo, and Jesse?"

"Right above you, you moron" Mumbled Fives and he and Echo dropped down from one of the higher bunks.

"And I'm literally right behind you." Sassed Jesse.

"We have bunk beds," Echo giggled excitedly.

"For the billionth time in our lives" Added Fives. "Why is it always bunk beds."

"How are you guys talking about bunk beds right now?" Ahsoka asked.

Fives shrugged. "We face death and the unknown on a daily basis. We've learned that the best way to do that without losing our minds is to focus on the little things and try not to worry about the big picture."

"And it's more fun." Echo added.

"Makes sense." Ahsoka laughed.

"Seriously though, why always bunk beds?" Continued Speed. "Every single place we go, it's bunk beds!"

"Saves space probably." Commented Jesse.

"Speaking of bunk beds, I counted the beds." Stated Echo. "Some of us are going to need to double up assuming they leave us here."

"We should wait till the others are up and do this in a fair and well thought out manner." Stated Speed with an expression of mock seriousness on his face.

"Not it!" Exclaimed Ahsoka.

"Not it." Shouted the rest of the conscious clones.

"So I guess Denal or Rex of some of the medics will be sharing." Snickered Fives.

"Does anyone want to place bets on when the others will wake up?" Suggested Jesse.

"I'm game." Said Ahsoka.

"I just came too, the other probably will in a minute or so." Added Speed.

"Buzz kill" Hissed Jesse. From across the room they heard a groan coming from one of the medics.

"If you will all excuse me, that is Kix and if someone is not there when he wakes up he will panic."

Jesse swung himself off the bed and headed over to his friend. Jesse knelt down so he was at eye level with Kix.

"It's ok Kixy, I'm here." He murmured.

"Wait, so who woke up first?" Speed questioned.

"Jesse first, apparently we were all kinds in a pile on the floor so he got us up onto bunks." Echo explained.

"I woke up next." Took over Ahsoka. "Jesse calmed me down. Then Fives woke up and we all made fun of Echo until he came to too."

"Then we all affirmed his sense of self because we love you Echo and you are a valued member of-whatever this is." Finished Fives.

"I think we're a team/family." Answered Echo.

"Starting the motion to wake everyone up because we need to figure some stuff out." Declared Ahsoka.

"Motion seconded." Laughed Echo.

"Let's do it." Agreed Speed.

The group proceeded to go around and shake shoulders and whisper versions "Hey wake up buddy, up and at 'em."

Once they had awakened everyone else they all stood over Rex.

"We should be responsible and mature about this." Said Denal.

"Hell no." Argued Fives. "This is revenge for every time he's woken us up and everyone is still asleep and cozy in bed but we have to go to live fire exercises."

"Revenge is bad." Pointed out Ahsoka.

"I feel we're justified." Said Echo.

"We don't have a bucket of water to dump on him though." Mused Ahsoka

"WAIT, you know about that stuff?" Exclaimed Boxer and Kix.

"Guys, Everyone in the GAR knows that you dump buckets of water on sleeping people to wake them up. We've all heard the screams."

"That is true; when we give someone a water wake up they tend to scream and we'll all be screaming enough soon." Lectured Echo.

"Someone's a real ray of sunshine." Commented Rex.

"Wait Rex you're awake, how-"

"CO's don't really sleep we just close our eyes." Rex explained as he sat up. "We have to constantly keep an eye on you lot."

"I feel so valued." Said Kix.

"Hold on to that feeling." Spoke a new voice. Everyone looked up. Two clones stood at the entrance. "This place'll beat it out of you quick. I'm Ace by the way. This is Shockwave."

Shockwave nodded. Ahsoka got the sense that was about as much as he would communicate.

"Ahh, A padawan. Haven't had one of you here in ages." Said Ace as he casually strolled down the barrack.

"Thanks?"

"Welcome kid." He replied. "Now, there are a few things you should all know about this lovely establishment. The first of which is it is designed to break you. It will, if you let it."

"So we won't let it." Retorted Echo.

"Good." Said Ace. "Also see that little light bulb above the door, if it flashes red get in parade rest in two lines on each side of the barrack. It means one of the seppies is coming in."

"What's parade rest?" Whispered Ahsoka.

"We'll show you later." Fives whispered back.

"The doors will open and then we all assemble in lines out in the courtyard area to get counted. Typically they pull anyone they want to interrogate that day and send the rest of us of to work assignments."

"What are the usual work assignments?" Frisk asked.

"Typically its pointless stuff designed to break you. Like sometimes they'll have ya in this giant mine and you're just carting rocks out of the place or other times they have us build bombs to be dropped onto our comrades. It's just stuff to help with the separatist war effort."

"You sabotage it right? Tell me you sabotage the bombs that are going to be dropped on all of our brothers!" Demanded Burner.

Shockwave snorted and rolled his eyes. No words were said but his message was clear.

"Not all of us are lost souls." Responded Ace.

"Good you had me worried there for a second." Breathed Burner.

"Also," Continued Ace. "They will break you with their interrogation tactics. Make some BS up beforehand with your people so you're all in tandem." Shockwave nodded after that one to add emphasis.

"That's not really an issue for us given we know absolutely nothing." Kix interrupted.

"They don't tell us anything." Agreed Coric.

"Not an issue for you maybe, but those two" Ace elaborated, pointing at Rex and Ahsoka. "May have an issue."

"No we won't" Snorted Rex.

Ahsoka nodded. "We won't break."

Ace cackled. "Talk to me in a month. We'll see how you're doing then. 'Kay."

"We won't be here in a month." Muttered Boxer.

"We'll break out of here long before that" Asserted Jesse.

"Way long before." Challenged Speed.

Ace ignored them. "Other interesting objects of note are that a) these seppies are intense and will beat you for nothing b) no one has every escaped from this hell c) They can and will break every single one of you. Did I forget anything?"

He directed this last part at Shockwave, who nodded and mimed doing something with his hands.

"Oh yeah, work assignments. You're going to get worked until you're dead and if you're not working they'll either have you locked up in here or they'll be torturing you. Any questions?"

"When do we eat?" Shouted out someone.

"Those doors," Ace explained. "Will open at meal times. Follow the crowd to the mess hall, get food. Don't talk to anyone while you eat. The stuff tastes worse than expired frozen rations but it's usually edible."

"Usually?" Exclaimed Denal.

"85% of the time it will taste horrible 99% of the time. It's a Prisoner of War Camp, what did you all expected?"

"So that's what this is then," Groaned Rex "A fucking POW camp."

"We think so," Smiled Ace, but there was less of an edge to him now. He seemed almost friendly. "There are a couple terms you could use for this place. None of which I shall repeat in front of the kid."

"Appreciate it" Said Ahsoka.

"Alright, we gotta go now." Ace declared. "I had some other guys go talk to your other people."

"Wait, how did you get in here."? Realized Jesse. "Those doors are double bolted. I checked after I came to."

"Floorboards under that bed are loose. We have a system of tunnels around all the barracks. I'll show it to you soon. Have a nice day."

Shockwave and Ace shimmied under the bed and after a few scraping sounds were gone. The only evidence their presence had ever graced the barrack was the stunned looks on all of their faces.

"Fuck." Hissed Mixer.

"What?" Chorused the others.

In response, Mixer just pointed at the now red light above the door.

 **A/N: This chapter was inspired by coffee and Orange is the New Black. Shout outs to Getting Traught, Lux's Sister, PhantomxWolf for their reviews. Same as always, Reviewers get shout outs.**

 **Have a good night y'all.**


	5. First Encounters

"What do we do?" Whispered Burner.

"Parade formation. Two lines. Do whatever they tell you. Tell them nothing." Hushed Rex. "Now, men, now."

"Will someone tell me what parade formation is?" Hissed Ahsoka.

"Fives Echo." Rex snapped. "You're up."

"Ok," Echo began. "Stand up straight, suck in your gut, stick out your chest, and fold your hands behind your back, feet shoulder with apart."

"Like this?" Ahsoka asked as she did as Echo instructed.

"Exactly. Now stare straight ahead and do not move your eyes no matter how in your face they get." Fives added.

"And only speak if spoken too. And don't speak, shout if shouted at." Echo said.

"Ok." Ahsoka breathed. "I can do this."

Fives snorted. "No you can't, you're doomed."

"He's trying to encourage you by forcing you to prove him wrong." Echo quickly explained. "He used to do it a lot with our squad."

"Sir, yes, sir."

"Atta-girl."

The doors to the barrack flew open. One of the human separatists strolled in. He was dressed in a black OP's suit. His chestnut hair was shaved in a buzz cut down to his skin. Ahsoka knew instantly he was someone to fear.

"My name is Corporal Kai Ray of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. I am one of the reasons you live and breath from now on. My rules are simple. Do not speak unless spoken to, and do whatever we tell you." He stated.

Ray strolled down the row casually. He stopped where each clone and examined them with his eyes. Fives kept his gaze steady. He didn't even seem phased about how close the seppie was to him. Rex did the same. Ahsoka wasn't even sure if Echo was breathing. Not one of them spoke. The seppie stopped short in front of Ahsoka.

"A Jedi youngling, been awhile since we had one of you in here. 3 years to be exact."

Rex caught Ahsoka's eyes. _Don't move, don't talk, don't shift your gaze, and don't respond._

He mouthed. Ahsoka did as Rex instructed, and it was one of the hardest things she had ever done.

The seppie moved down the line at last. Ahsoka bathed a sigh of relief. If they were lucky he would just leave and forget about them. If they weren't lucky…she didn't want to think about that.

"All of you follow me." Ray turned and walked toward the door. Rex jerked his head after him. The message was clear. _Follow him, complain and belittle him later._ Ray led the group single file past other barracks and through a large open area. Another seppie was leading a line of clones through here as well.

"Taz," Ray inquired. "This group is scheduled for physical labor till 7 tonight. Why aren't they in the fields right now?"

"We had complications." The seppie called Taz answered. "They're refusing to work again. I figured I'd stick them back in their barrack for a few days with no food and see if they felt like working after that."

Rex eyed the group of said clones. There were no colored tattoos or hair dyes that could've hinted at what legion they had been part of, but they carried themselves as if they were afraid of nothing. The clear leader of the group stood right behind Taz and rolled his eyes. If the men were scared at the thought of food deprivation it didn't show. Then again they already looked half starved so maybe this was nothing new.

"No." Responded Ray. "Take them to interrogation. Cià said that the Jedi wasn't breaking. She wants Jif to do this lot's interrogations as training. She's bored. Take them to her. We might get some more info out of them. At the very least we can bet on how long they'll last before breaking with some of her methods."

"Sounds good. Are we still on for dinner tonight, heard its going to be delicious." Replied Taz.

 _Are they…making dinner plans? Our captors are making dinner plans. Lovely. Speaking of dinner… No! Bad Rex! Don't think about food!_ Rex thought.

He made eye contact with Fives, who made a what-is going-on face at him. Ahsoka and Echo were eyeing the other clones. Most of troopers looked like they weren't paying attention, while the medics looked to be mentally cataloguing the injuries seen on their fellow prisoners. The leader of the strange clones was clearly seizing them all up while another trying to discreetly calm down a clone that seemed to be panicking at the thought of seeing this Cià. She was not a person Rex was eager to meet. Though if Ace was right he and Ahsoka might be meeting her soon.

"So where are you off to with this lot?" Taz asked as his eyes drifted down the line of 501 clones.

"Preliminary interrogations. And I forgot my earplugs. Hey do you want me to take them with me? Seems a shame for us both to have to go over there." Ray offered. Rex perked up. Maybe they could take Ray if they all worked together. As if his thought were being read, the leader shook his head slightly and looked to the ground. This was the benefit of being a clone; you all spoke the same lingo. The leader was saying they shouldn't take Ray out because Ray was more powerful. Rex tilted his head towards Ahsoka to say that they had a Jedi so they stood a chance. The leader tugged on the shook collar around his neck. Rex mentally cursed himself, damn collars, getting those off would be the biggest part and most challenging aspect of any escape.

"Thanks man. That'd be great. See you later all right?" Taz said gratefully as he began to walk in the opposite direction.

"Alright all of you fall into 2 lines! If I hear any talking I will not hesitate to use those collars. March now!" Ray led the group to a large building that looked like it should've been in a horror movie. Then again this entire week had felt like a horror movie so the building fit right in place.

The inside of the building wasn't much better. Ray and a few commando droids began shoving everyone into separate cells. It wasn't as bad as it had been in the cages thankfully. For starters they hadn't been locked into cages, only individual cells; they also knew where everyone else was. The only reason Rex wasn't panicking was that he knew Ahsoka was to his left and Kix was to his right.

Rex kicked the cell door for a moment but soon just curled up in the corner.

Ahsoka was meditating. She was quite proud of herself for that. She could hear most of the clones banging on the cell walls in an attempt to escape. Ahsoka sensed that this was a useless measure. Ray had said that she was the first padawan here in 3 years, so that meant that there had been clones running around for 3 years probably more. If there was a way out of here it would've been found by now, and Ace had said no one had ever escaped. Now would've been a good time to use some of those curse words she had picked up from various troopers.

Ahsoka's head jerked up as she heard the cell door open. The female seppie who had knocked her out entered.

" I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Lieutenant Cià. What's yours?"

"Commander Ahsoka Tano." Ahsoka answered.

"Well Ahsoka, come with me please."

Ahsoka stood up shakily. Cià walked out of the cell with her in tow. They walked down a hallway lined with doors all triple bolted.

"Do you have clones in all of these cells." She asked as innocently as she could muster. Ahsoka figured the more she knew the better.

"All of the ones here, yes. The ones on the upper levels are empty. They were built for Jedi."

Ahsoka decided not to mention that she was a Jedi and had not been locked in those cells. They were underestimating her. They would pay dearly for that.

Cià led her up a flight of stairs and down a series of more hallways.

"How do you not get lost in here?" Ahsoka asked amicably. Continuing with her "the more you know plan."

"It was hard at first, I got used to it pretty quickly though. In here, sit down for me."

Ahsoka did as she was told and hated herself for it. They stood no chance at escape if they followed the rules blindly. Then again, they stood no chance at escape if they all disobeyed recklessly.

The thing Ahsoka had been told to sit down on could be best described as a wide metal bench. Cià pushed the young girl's shoulders back gently. Only then did Ahsoka realize what was going to happen and began to fight back. Cià wasn't even phased by the kicking and screaming.

"Why do your kind always struggle?" She panted as she tied down Ahsoka's arms.

"You'll break and die eventually, you always do."

"That may be true, but that doesn't mean I can't fight you now." Ahsoka sassed as she bucked her hips furiously.

Cià finished strapping Ahsoka's arms down and threw a heavy belt over her hips. Momentarily deterred, Ahsoka paused in thought before drawing her leg back and striking Cià in the face. Cià was expecting that though, she grabbed Ahsoka's ankle before it could reach her face and twisted it hard. Ahsoka screamed in pain.

"Oh stop screaming." Laughed Cià. "We haven't even gotten to the fun part yet."

Ahsoka gasped for air. Cià was still laughing when she commed someone for a cart. Ahsoka didn't know why she needed a cart, but she figured it could be nothing good.

"Any chance you want to tell me some info now? You'd be saving yourself a lot of pain."

"Hell no." Retorted Ahsoka. "Every moment you're here with me is a moment you're not hurting Master Skywalker or Rex or Fives or Echo or Kix or-"

"Alright, I get it. Your going to be stubborn to try to protect them, but consider this-would they do the same for you?" Cià said with a manically grin. "Would they?"

"Yeah they would." Ahsoka barked. "Like it or not, we're a family. Family watches out for each other."

"Oh how sweet, you're a family. How many times do you think I've heard that from one of you kind honey? How many ties do you think you've all gone into this promising you'll protect each other, but then I watch you all break slowly. Hell, I break you. I do it nice and slow at first, you don't even realize its happening but I make it happen. You think you'll bend a little, but you break. You break every time."

Two droids wheeled a cart loaded with all sorts of knives and objects on it. Cià's smile grew even wider.

"Has it occurred to you that I can just have droids conduct interrogations on your friends while I'm here and your not doing them any good by being stubborn."

"You might." Snarled Ahsoka. "But you have an inflated sense of self worth and you'd want to be there."

"You're right, I would want to be there. But we can't always get what we want can we." And with those words Cià pressed down on a button on the cart. Jolts of electricity ran up and down Ahsoka's body. She shrieked and withered in pain.

Ahsoka shut down. Her every thought became focused on the pain that circuited around her body after Cià asked her a question. Battle formations, base locations, even questions about clone armor, Cià asked them all. Ahsoka replied as wittily as she could at first but soon gave up and just tried not to cry.

Cià started in with the needles shortly after asking about the temple. She would inject some green potion into her veins that caused searing pain in the area that it was injected. Cià wanted to know the temple's main access points and there was no way in hell Ahsoka was giving her that. She started crying somewhere around there.

"We sent the clones back to the barracks hours ago kid. " Cià said as she prepped yet another needle. "You can end this just give me some info."

"Has it really been hours?" Ahsoka sobbed.

"About 5 since I brought you up here yeah." Cià answered. There was something in her voice, sympathy? No. Sarcasm? No. It was admiration. The seppie flipping admired her. "You've been sobbing and half awake most of that time. It's normal that you don't remember." Ahsoka controlled her breathing.

"I don't know any of this stuff. And even if I did, there's no way I would ever tell you." Ahsoka murmured.

"If I had a credit for every time I heard that…" Mused Cià. "You do know things, and I will get them out of you. You forget we're on my clock, not yours."

Ahsoka's stomach rumbled. She closed her eyes and relaxed her head for the first time in apparently 5 hours.

"I will never break." She muttered. "You just watch."

"You know the clones that were brought here with you as punishment owe you big. I've been so busy with you that I never had time to get to them. Most of my men owe you as well. There was a betting pool to guess if you'd break. The majority said you wouldn't. We know Jedi little one. What I have put you through here today are just a sampling of what my men and I can do."

"Looking forward to the main event then." Ahsoka growled.

"I'm going to leave you here for a little bit, until your so called 'family' gets back from the mines. Then I'll throw you in with the rest of them. You'll be hurting, they'll be hurting."

"Sounds like a party." Ahsoka grunted as she tried to free her wrists. _Guess who is not broken despite your attempts. That's right me!_ Ahsoka thought happily as she tugged on the cuff. She was hurting sure, but she'd soon be reunited with the others and that gave her strength. The next half hour passed in awkward silence. Ahsoka figured Cià would electrocute her every so often or so, but she didn't. Apparently she did have a heart.

Cià suddenly snapped her fingers and 2 commando droids appeared.

"Take this one back to the barracks." She ordered.

Ahsoka didn't fight them as the dragged her down the stairs and out of the building. She thought about saying something when she was dragged through the dust but decided against it. The droids tossed her into the barrack without a word. Ahsoka stood up shakily, before the utter realization hit her. These were not her men. That was not Rex leaning up against the bunk beds. That was not Echo curled up near Fives. That was not Kix teasing Coric and Jesse. These were not her boys. This was not the barrack she had woken up in this morning.

"Umm, hello?" Ahsoka waved. Thankfully Ace sat up on one of the lower bunks.

"Hi kid, they stuck you in the wrong barrack. Happens all the time." Ace explained.

"It does?"

"Surprisingly yes, I'd think they'd get you right given you're the only non-clone non- seppie running around the joint, but hey. They're only droids. Can you walk?"

"I think so."

"Good. Buzz wake Shockwave up. He's in charge till I get back. Let's get you back to your people kid."

"Thanks Ace."

"Welcome kid." Ace helped her underneath the bed and lifted a plank up.

"Ladies first." He said with a grin. Ahsoka dropped into the tunnel underneath. It completely dark save for the light coming from the hole above her head. Ace dropped down beside her and flipped a light switch.

"You have electricity in your secret tunnel of defiance?"

"Yeah, Shockwave and Buzz got bored while they were torturing the rest of us about a year ago so they broke out of the barrack and into a supply shed to get the stuff. They were so proud of themselves. I would've been laughing my head off had it not hurt so much to laugh."

"Why did it hurt to laugh?" Ahsoka asked as the two began to walk along.

"They did something to my ribs and chest. I'm still not exactly sure what it was."

"Oh sorry."

"It's fine kid."

"How long have you been here?"

"Honestly, I'm not really sure. The days all kind of blurred together. The guys back there aren't the ones they brought me in with though, most of them are dead."

"I'm sorry about you brothers." Ahsoka said sincerely.

Ace stopped walking and gave her a sad smile.

"I know kid, I know. And believe me when I say to treasure the moments now when you're all together. Because there will come a day when you will no longer hear their jokes or bad puns. And all you'll have left is those memory of them."

"I will." Ahsoka promised. "Do you think they're all ok right now? I hope they only used that green stuff on me. It really hurt."

"They probably sent your men to go work when they realized you were proving to be troublesome. Good job by the way, about that. "

"What do you think they made them do?"

"Could be anything really. You got some tough boys on your hands though, I wouldn't worry to much about it."

"I'll try not to."

"We're here." Ace declared. "I'll walk you in, I need to talk to Rex anyway."

"You're basically in charge of the resistance around here aren't you?"

"The less you know the less you can say during interrogations. You want to know why Rex and I have to talk?"

"Yeah."

"They got to you today, they'll probably do him tomorrow. He might not be there when you all wake up. It'll also be pretty bad for him because they know he knows stuff. When you do get him back he will be a mess emotionally and physically. Just be there for him. Can you do that for me?"

"Okay." Ahsoka agreed. The duo scaled the ladder that had been constructed out off dirt. The second they came out from underneath the bed Ahsoka was tackled by the clones. They helped her up and began talking a mile a minute each about different topics. Kix was trying to make sure she wasn't injured after the interrogation while Coric was yelling at his brothers for tackling a senior officer. Fives was telling her how they had figured she was dead as Echo excitedly explained how all the seppies had been talking about was how she was holding out. Denal and Jesse were trying to tell her about how they hadn't really been interrogated rather been sent to work dragging rocks around in some mine. Frisk an Burner were refusing to apologize about the tackle when Ahsoka hugged them all. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rex and Ace having a hushed conversation. Ace looked mildly concerned and Rex looked a tiny bit scared.

"I missed you guys." Ahsoka muttered as she hugged her tacklers.

"Missed you too Commander." Came the general chorus.

"I'd better go." Ace called as he headed back towards the bed. "Sweet dreams everyone, and good luck Rex."

"Thanks Ace." Ahsoka smiled at him as he slid under the bed.

 _See you later_ he mouthed to all of them.

"Everyone bed" Rex ordered. "Leave Commander Tano alone, she's had a long day."

"So have we." Grumbled Echo.

"Bed now." Pressed Rex. "You ok?" He whispered to her.

"I'm good. It sucked when it was going on and for about 5 minutes after but I'm ok now. At least I learned what parade formation is."

"You must be starving. Hey Echo did you pilfer anyone's ration sticks recently?"

Echo reached into his belt and pulled out a ration stick. "This one was Fives's," He said with a serious nod. Fives punched him.

"Bad enough I have to share a bed with you and now you take my food."

"I took your food long before we had to share a bed." Replied Echo. The 2 began to quietly argue and wrestle.

Ahsoka climbed into her bunk with a sense of satisfaction. They hadn't broken her, she was alive, and she was loved. They could escape. They would, they just needed time.

 **Shout outs to Lux's Sister and AutumnLeaves03 for their reviews. I didn't proofread this. I'm exhausted. If you find a mistake pretend it doesn't exist. Reviewers get shout outs (even anon ones). Have a good night and be safe. Love, Rokawk15**


	6. Mines, Tasers, and Green Liquid(oh my)

"I won't tell you anything," Anakin snarled. Jif swallowed hard. This was his first ever-individual interrogation and it was going less than well. The Jedi was refusing to cooperate no matter what Jif did to him. So far he had injected over a quart of the green fluid (there was a scientific name for it but everyone called it the green fluid), and given the Jedi a bloody nose and a black eye, and acted as strong and scary as he could. It just wasn't going very well. Never mind that Cià hadn't thought he was breakable yet; she expected him to at least make the Jedi bend. The Jedi was tough and Jif was sympathetic towards him. He knew how dangerous this could be of course, but he couldn't help it. There was something to be said about a man who refused to snitch on his comrades even though snitching would benefit him greatly. Cià stuck her head into the cell.

"Hallway now," she barked. The Jedi smiled triumphantly.

"Have fun," he coughed. _Sympathy gone Jedi, sympathy gone,_ Jif thought as he joined Cià, Taz, and Ray out in the hallway.

"Men, status report," she demanded.

Ray snapped a salute. "Ma'am, the prisoners from the 501 are proving more difficult than anticipated. We got nothing from preliminary interrogations yesterday. They don't know anything― "

"Idiot," sneered Cià. "That's what they want you to think. The girl knows things of importance. The captain does too. Don't let them fool you. Jif I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself. Get him to talk. I don't care what you get out of him as long as it's something useful."

Taz took over. "Ma'am, the clones who refused to work yesterday are doing it again today."

Cià paused in thought for a moment. "Drag them down to the basement level. Lock them in the darkest cells we have. No food, no water. Total isolation. Anyone who's still alive at the end of a week will be broken beyond repair. They'll work then."

"You're far more merciful then I," said Ray. "I would just shoot them all."

"This is a longer and slower death," replied Cià. "It is not mercy. In the mean time, Taz start going to start looking into other Republic activities we can pick pocket clones from. If we aren't getting what we need from the 501 maybe someone else will cooperate."

"Yes ma'am, I'll begin 1st thing tomorrow morning," Taz answered.

"And, Taz! I want minimal effort needed to get them here. Closer they are the better."

"Yes ma'am," Taz replied.

Cià turned to Jif. "As for all of you, you're in charge of interrogating the clone captain. Get something out of him. I don't care what it is. Get me something I can protect all of our jobs with. I'm going to start going over their foot soldiers. They're easier to break and always have been." Cià began to pace furiously in the hallway. "I wasted time on the girl yesterday. I shouldn't have let the droids work the others. Droids can torture, they can't interrogate."

"I thought we had longer to break them," sighed Jif.

"Technically we have as long as we need to break them. We need to bend them as much as possible within the first few days. Otherwise they won't break at all."

Taz took a deep breath. "We'll break them ma'am, we always do," he tried to soothe.

"Yeah ma'am!" Jif agreed.

"This batch is just tougher on the surface," explained Ray. "Harder the shell, the better the nut."

Cià stopped pacing. "You just made that up didn't you?"

Ray stared at his boots. "Yes ma'am," he mumbled.

"It's late, we should all get to bed," suggested Cià. "The wake up alarm sounds at 5:30 AM in the barracks. Before that alarm, grab the captain and a few of his men. Stick them into cells. You can all make them suffer all you want."

All three men saluted. "Yes ma'am!"

"And Jif?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Don't disappoint me."

"I won't ma'am, I won't."

"Good. Get to bed all of you then. I'll finish up here with the Jedi."

The three men walked down the hall and tried to ignore the sound of Anakin screaming.

The next morning came early for Ray, Taz, and Jif. Around 5:15 they entered the barrack that held their desired targets.

"Which ones other than the blond?" wondered Jif.

"That one. He nearly punched me when we were capturing him," ordered Ray.

Fives woke up with a jump.

"Say anything and you're dead," a voice murmured to him. He knew that voice…it was that seppie! What was his name again? _Sheesh, Fives, get it together._ He thought to himself. _You're a clone; names should really be your strong suit._ That's it: Ray. The dude's name was Ray. Fives took a moment of pride in his ability to remember his captor's name and paid the price. He felt a buzzer being pressed into the nape of his neck and collapsed into the electricity swarming around his body.

Ray dragged Fives's body to the ground. "Which one next?" he whispered.

Taz pointed at Frisk's sleeping body.

"I'll take that one and have Jif take the captain. We have about 15 minutes before the wake up alarm sounds," he whispered.

"Do you need help?" Ray murmured. "The last thing we need is an escapee on the loose."

"I got him." responded Taz.

Taz climbed up onto the lower bed and tugged Frisk's bodysuit down just far enough to expose the back of his neck. Taz slipped his hand over Frisk's mouth and grabbed the taser from his belt. Taz plunged the taser into Frisk's neck. Frisk was dragged to the ground and tossed on top of Fives. Jif exhaled slowly and took his own taser of his belt. Taz placed his hand over Rex's mouth and nodded at Jif.

"You can do it. He won't wake up, you've done this before," Taz enticed.

"Yeah, but those were all just meaningless foot soldiers. This guy could put up a decent fight if he wakes up," Jif breathed back.

Ray rolled his eyes. "For the love of God, just do it before these ones come to."

Rex exhaled slowly. He hadn't been kidding when he had said that CO's didn't sleep. Besides, Ace had warned him that the seppies would probably come for him in the middle of the night. Who in the galaxy would be able to sleep with that hanging over them? Jif moved to grab his taser, but Rex was already going. He swung Taz into the bedpost and flipped Jif to the ground. Rex landed on the ground and kicked Ray in his stomach hard. Ray howled in pain and Rex howled for everyone to get up. Taz tried to grab him; luckily Rex was expecting that and ducked under his arms. He then turned and kicked high into Taz's head. Jif scrambled around on the ground trying to find his taser. Echo (always a light sleeper mind you) sleepily opened his eyes and mouthed "Oh shit!" at what he saw.

Taz had tossed himself onto Rex's back and had forced him to the ground. Rex saw his field of vision growing darker due to his lack of oxygen. Rex tried to grapple at the seppies arms around his neck. Then a thought occurred to him. He felt the seppie's belt and grabbed the taser. It would've been a great plan, but Ray made a grab for his hand. The taser skidded off into the darkness of the barrack.

Echo glanced at the two men on top of his captain. He made eye contact with Rex.

"What should I do?" he mouthed

Rex fought to get his hands free from the seppies on top of him, he immediately flattened his hand the lifted his thumb and pinky. The clone symbol for 'fake it' coming in handy yet again. Echo nodded and curled up. He tried to ignore the ball of fear forming in his stomach. It wasn't that he didn't have complete faith in Rex; he just really didn't want to get electro-shocked again. It had hurt more than he had let on.

Ray pounded Rex's mouth with his elbow. Rex tossed him off and spat blood. This fight would've been 50/50 were Rex's body not so food and sleep deprived. Jif, meanwhile, had finally gotten his act together. His fingers closed around a taser and he swung it hard into Rex's head. Rex shuddered violently for a moment but almost immediately collapsed to the ground.

"See, that wasn't so bad," said Taz with a look of approval in his eyes.

Ray rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, good job fucking up something so simple a child could do it."

"Time to go. _Now,_ " pressed Taz as he seized Frisk from the floor and moved toward the door.

"I agree," whispered Ray. "I'll take the blond." He roughly dragged Rex to the door.

Jif fumbled with his belt. "Coming," he muttered as he took Five's arms and began to drag him out of the barrack.

Once outside, the three quickly cuffed their captives' hands to make it easier to drag them. They proceeded to drag the clones through the dust and dirt on the ground. Had Fives or Frisk been awake they both would've spent the whole time complaining in hopes of distracting and annoying their captors. Rex would've just given all three of them a death stare. The three seppies were pretty sure they could handle complaints but clone CO's were legendary for their death stares. They were lucky that he hadn't managed to awaken the others.

Echo opened his eyes fearfully. Why had Rex told him to go back down? It didn't make sense. There was the possibility Rex had a plan, but that was slim. Rex had pretty clearly just been going on impulse.

"Everybody up!" Echo demanded of the barrack. No one moved. How did Rex or Commander Tano do it? They would flip the light switches up and down until they had everyone up. But Echo didn't have a light switch. He didn't even have a bucket of water. They had his brothers and his best friend. He had nothing on them. He did, however, have a very loud voice.

"All of you! Up now!" The others sat up and tried to rub the sleep from their eyes.

"Echo, why are you so cruel as to wake us up before we have to be awake?" whined Kix.

"Rex, Fives, and Frisk are gone," Burner noticed

"Ace said that they might grab Rex and some other guys while we were all asleep," Ahsoka muttered.

"Why didn't they at least try to wake us up though," contemplated Speed.

"Someone put up a fight," mused Denal. "You can tell by the marks on the ground."

"Yeah," Ahsoka agreed. "I think it was Rex. He was in that bunk over there. You can see how 2 people creep up on the bunk, he tossed them off― "

"Then I woke up and he told me to pretend to be out," Echo continued. "But why would he do that? What was his plan?"

Jesse sucked in a gasp of air and grinned. "I bet I know what he did. These seppies use tasers, right? So what if he got one of their tasers?"

"I saw them all fumbling around. What if in all that confusion he got one of them and left it for us?"

"But why not wake the rest of us up? We could've helped! Or why not use the taser on one of them?" pondered Ahsoka.

"He might not of had time to think that much," suggested Speed. "When I get into hand combat situations I just turn on auto drive and go."

"That's probably what he did," commented Burner. "Say he did get a taser, where is it now though?" Jesse and Kix began to feel around under the bunks in the general area. Ahsoka closed her eyes. What would Rex have done? He was on pure adrenaline. He might not've been thinking. Instinct would've kicked in; Rex's instinct would've been to protect his brothers and to protect her. if he got a weapon he would use it unless it got knocked out of his hand.

"Found it!" Shouted Jesse triumphantly. He sat up from under a bunk. His armor and upper body was covered in dust.

"Good lord Jesse you're filthy!" cried Speed.

Jesse stuck his tongue out at Speed.

"Wasn't it you that fell tripped going down the hill on Terbrin and fell into the mud puddle?" asked Ahsoka.

"No that was my twin," Speed explained. "His name is Bead and he steals my armor all the time."

Coric rolled his eyes. "Ok, If you see Bead tell him we need some help 'kay."

Speed nodded excitedly. "I will."

" _Please_ tell me he's kidding," muttered Boxer. "Dear God, please tell me we don't have two Speed's running around."

"Nah," laughed Kix. "We would've figured it out if we had two Speed's long ago. The ration of things blown up to clones on the field, remember?"

"Wait― that's an actual thing?" realized Ahsoka.

"Yeah," answered every clone in the barrack.

"My entire world has changed," expressed Ahsoka.

"Red light!" hissed Boxer.

"What do I do with this?" Jesse murmured excitedly as everyone scrambled into a semi-neat parade formation.

"Toss it into the tunnel." ordered Ahsoka.

"You're going to get even more dirty," moaned Speed.

"Speed, we're probably going to the mines. We're all going to get filthy," Echo reminded him.

The doors to the barrack flew open once again. This time it was commando droids that descended upon their humble home.

"Follow us," they demanded.

"Sir yes sir," barked every clone and Ahsoka. They filed out of the barrack in neat orderly rows. Most of them kept their heads and eyes downcast. Ahsoka did the same until they passed the shadow of the huge building. _Master's up there._ She realized. _As was Rex, and Fives and Frisk was probably up there too._ Ahsoka swore to herself she would get them out of here. She swore that she would get every last clone out of this hell or die trying. The droids kept walking past other buildings that looked equally malicious. Ahsoka hoped none of them would ever find out what was in them. The droids took a left.

"Fuck, it's the mines," sighed Boxer.

"Damn it," shuddered Kix. Coric reached across the line and put his hand on Kix's shoulder.

"You'll be ok," he whispered.

"Wanna bet? You didn't get sent down deep like I did last time. There's no air and― "

"Clones! Quiet back there!" ordered a droid. Kix shuddered again. Ahsoka frowned. Very little could phase Kix. She had seen him remove bullets and patch burns while telling the worst puns during a battle and walk out of there dragging someone who could barely walk, totally unnerved and relax. Whatever it was that could do this to him, she didn't want to see it. The droids led them to yet another small clearing. There was a pile of rocks and other rubble that Ahsoka supposed was the entrance to the mine. Conveyer belts led away from the mine entrance with carts at the end of each belt. There were a few human seppies standing on observation posts all around the clearing. The droids shoved the line Ahsoka was in towards the entrance.

"Get down there now," commanded the droids.

"See you guys soon," Coric said optimistically.

"Bite me," retorted Kix. He trembled. Boxer shot Echo and Mixer a look.

"We got you Kix," soothed Echo as the group descended into the mines.

"So how does this work?" Ahsoka inquired to Denal.

"We push those carts down to the bottom of the mine where some other guys fill them with what looks like plain rocks but the seppies insist is some valuable ore. Then we pull the carts back up to that lift from which they are lifted up to where more guys separate the rock from the ore," Denal answered her with a grin.

"How many prisoners do they fucking have?" Ahsoka asked. The numbers of men that would be required for an operation like this… and this was just one cog in the wheel. Ace had said that they had clones assembling bombs, being interrogated everyday, and hauling rocks.

"I don't know, but it must be a lot," Denal responded.

"How long do we go?"

"The others said there was usually a lunch break around noon. After that we get dinner on the way back to the barrack around 8ish."

"We can do this again right guys?" breathed Echo as they grabbed carts and began pushing. The carts were monstrous in size and weight. Ahsoka didn't remember ever dealing with something so heavy in her life.

"Yeah," panted Mixer. "We'll be fine."

"This isn't so tough." agreed Ahsoka.

"Wait until the way back," grunted Speed. "It's uphill and the carts are loaded."

* * *

Rex tried to blink the exhaustion from his eyes. There were a bright white lights in his face, which was never a pleasant sight.

"Open your eyes," came a harsh voice. Rex very slowly opened one eye, he knew what was about to go down and ha wanted to do it on his terms.

"Yes?" he asked in his snarkiest voice.

"Now," ordered a different voice. Rex fully obeyed this time. He was strapped down to a table in just his body suit. The body suit itself appeared untouched except for his sleeves had been rolled up from his wrists to his upper arm. Presumably to give the seppies more area to work.

"Yes?" He again asked. Rex recognized two of the seppies. Taz and Ray, from the previous day. The other one he had met for the first time this morning when the seppie had utterly failed to tase him before a fistfight (which he lost) before ultimately succeeding in tasing him. He had been called Jif? Yeah Jif that was it. This morning they had seemed cool and confident even when Rex was putting up a (decent) fight. Now, they looked really mad and really stressed. _What on earth could've happened in the half hour it took to drag me here and get me on this table?_ he wondered.

"Look clone, we don't have time for you to be all noble and protective. We need information NOW. And we will get it. By any means necessary. Understand?" Ray began.

"Yep," sassed Rex with an added eye roll. All clones hated being interrogated by the enemy because usually it torture; but it could be fun because, you've got to be sassy. Normally the clones couldn't do sassing people in positions of power because of the whole 'chain of command' but interrogations, those were the times that you got to snark and sass all you want. There were the downsides of torture and the inevitability of death but only so much you could do.

"I'll work this one," muttered Ray. "You guys each go focus on the other two clones. That is unless, you want to save them a lot of pain, and tell us some things."

"Their names are Frisk and Fives," Rex snarled. "Use them." Jif glanced down at his boots and bit his lower lip for a second. Rex would've grinned but he didn't want to tip his hand. He had found the weak link in their team. Jif and Taz walked out, presumably to go at Frisk and Fives. Rex mentally apologized to his brothers for sic'ing the seppies on them. Then again, he doubted Jif would be much of a sadist. Ray turned and began filling a needle with a green fluid.

"With the girl, we stopped as ordered, after 5 hours were up. We then waited till you were all back from your lovely little adventure at the mine and sent her back to you, as ordered. We have no such orders with you. This can be as long or as short as you make it. It can be painful or painless. Your choice," Ray informed him. Rex didn't respond.

"Long and painful it is then," Ray declared before plunging the needle into Rex's arm.

 **Shout outs to Lux's Sister, PhantomxWolf, AutumnLeaves03, Dorano1 for their reviews. I am going to be gone the next 2 weeks, so there will not be new chapters. But on the bright side, I will have a nice big chapter for when i get back. Reviewers get shout outs, be safe guys. Love, Rokawk15.**


	7. Matter of Time

Rex slammed his eyes shut and tried to even his breathing. A burning sensation worked its was around his arm. It felt like someone had doused his arm in gasoline and lit it on fire. _Don't panic, don't panic_ , he thought to himself. _Just breathe. Ahsoka made it through this and you can too. Just shut up and go to a place in your head where they can't get to you._ The burning sensation faded to pins and needles. Rex tried to move his arm and cursed.

"Hurts huh?" Lectured Ray from his spot. "That was just a sample. The girl was a lot tougher than you are. We were doing, I dunno, maybe 3 syringes at a time on her. All in the same spot too. She wasn't even reacting to all that. Looks like we'll both be out of here quickly if you keep this up. Though I did think we had her at one point. She nearly gave us some base locations. Don't suppose you'd like to finish that for her?"

"Nope." Rex exhaled. "Although I'm surprised you brought Commander Tano to the brink. She's a tough kid. Sure as hell tougher than me." He agreed.

"That might be an issue for you then." Ray hinted.

"Yeah well aware of that fact. You can try and break me. You won't. You might come close, but you won't break me. Commander Tano was playing you. She's unshakable. Just a PSA."

"Seemed pretty shakable yesterday when I used this on her." He waved a long knife in front of Rex.

Rex raised an eyebrow. "It might be interesting to note that you were busy babysitting me and the others at the mines yesterday. You weren't over here hurting her. Also interesting to note would be she didn't have the cuts a knife that size would produce. Read your interrogation briefing all the way through next time."

Ray sucked in air angrily. Rex mentally congratulated himself. Pissing the man who holds your life in his hands off was admittedly, not one of his better ideas. It was right up there with pretending to be a droid on Rishi. This was a time game. Who would last longer… All Rex had to do was survive until the republic got their act together. Ray and the others had until that happened to get information out of all of them.

Someone would show up eventually. He just had to last. They had taken the entire 501 for crying out loud. That would send at least one red flag up in someone's head. The only question was would the person be important enough. General Kenobi or General Plo might put some pieces together eventually and stumble upon what was going on here. Until then they would just have to- another needle prick brought Rex back from his theorizing. This one was directly into his elbow. Rex groaned in pain.

"So right about now you're thinking about which general will happen to figure out our little operation. Well I've got an answer for you. None of them. You have no idea how long we've been at this." Ray said with a tiny giggle almost. "No ones figured us out yet. And they never will."

"Let's agree to disagree on that one." Rex panted as he withered from the latest needle. "How long have you all been at this?"

"Long time. Since almost the beginning of the war. Any other questions before I shoot you up with more of this?"

"What is that green stuff anyway?" Rex asked, desperate to stall for time.

"A highly toxic chemical compound I can not pronounce. Though I think I'll switch to knives now, or electrical shocks. Those are always really fun. Plus we want to have enough for all of you and Taz tends to use lots of it during interrogations. Can you just tell me one base location? Just one? It can be one you have annoying friends at." Ray suggested.

"All of my brothers are annoying but I'm still not giving you any base locations. I'm not giving you any of our code keys either. I'm not sure if you have the brain cells to remember them anyway." _Interrogation sass coming back a bit_ Rex though triumphantly.

"Aw, You hurt my feelings." Moaned Ray. "You'll pay for that." Ray grabbed a taser of his belt and gently pinged it into Rex's side. This scream Rex wasn't able to hold back. Ray gave a small sadistic smile.

"More where that came from clone."

"My name is Rex. Captain Rex."

"So do you want to tell me why you're blond or am I on my own in that department."

"Why do you care about my hair color?"

"Just trying to make friendly conversation before Ciá comes in here and shatters you forever."

"You seem very confident in your ability to break us. Why is that?"

Ray snickered. "We break everyone. It's just a matter of time." He rammed the end of his taser into Rex's chest. "There have been some pretty stubborn groups too. But we got them. Just like we'll get all of you." Rex winced in pain and tried to curl up on his side before remembering he was tied to the table.

"Great."

"You should also know that we're very good at what we do."

"Well I can see that. I'm not blind."

"No but you are bind-ed. No? Yeah that one was bad sorry."

"Do you normally tell bad puns to your prisoners? Because out of everything you've done so far those are going to break me the fastest."

"Really, well fortunately for you that was the only one I had."

The cell door swung open and in strutted Ciá. She looked exhausted at first glance and like she was about to kill someone at a second glance. Rex really hoped she wasn't about to kill him.

"One of the clones is dead. Jif pushed too hard. Now our numbers are going to be off. I sent Jif to go watch Taz work the other clone. Maybe he'll learn something. The one Taz has is much more snarky than this one though."

"Dunno this one's pretty snarky when he wants to be."

Rex wanted to remind the two that he was right there but he also knew they would revel more if they just spoke to each other. Being ignored by people in positions of power was pretty much second nature to most of the clones in the GAR at this point. It was sad but it was true.

"I'm sure he is. I'm going to send Jif in here with you. Work this one until you get something. I don't even care what it is anymore. Babysit Jif while Taz figures out where no one will some clones going missing. I'm going to get something from the other one. Taz has him on the ropes. Give it 10 more minutes or so and I'll finally have something."

Rex was resisting the urge to scream. Who was dead? Frisk was young but he was also tougher than most troopers his age. Fives wouldn't have given them anything. So he might've been killed out of sheer spite. Either of them could've been killed to generate fear. Either one of them might've been killed for making one to many snide comments. Was anyone dead at all? There was the possibility this was faked by the seppies to get him to talk. If he were upset he might let something slip. It wouldn't work. And what was that Ciá had said about Taz planning on grabbing more clones? That would grab the republic's attention for sure. They had to know that. Were they really that desperate for information? If they were it was because no one was caving. Rex took some pride in that.

"I'll send Jif in here once Taz gets the other one."

"Great. Thank you ma'am."

* * *

"Muscles dead yet?" Ahsoka panted to Echo as the two pushed one of the carts filled with rocks up the slant of the mine. The pair had been dragging rocks more an hour now.

"I'm fine, I'm just worried about the others."

"Rex, Fives, and Frisk?" She asked as she shoved her entire body weight against the cart to get it to move a little faster.

"Yeah, Fives doesn't know when to stop being snide. He could get himself into more trouble. Rex is pretty damn tough so they'll be working on him for a while. And I don't think Frisk knows anything important. It'll take minutes for them to figure that out and kill him to send a message to the rest of us."

"You sound like you've given this a fair bit of thought."

"Unfortunately I have." Echo grunted.

"Do you think we'll ever get out of here?"

"Right now a rescue is our best bet since an escape attempt would be foolhardy. We don't know the place well enough yet to have a even remotely successful escape."

"All we have to do is last until the republic gets here." Ahsoka whispered.

"I just hope it's not the 212, they'd never let us live this down."

"Master Kenobi would tease Master Skywalker mercilessly. Though, he'll do that no matter who rescues us."

"If General Plo rescues us, Commander Wolffe is going to yell at us for 10 minutes straight."

"There's a fun thought."

"I know we should wait until we know the place better or just not do it at all, but can we just start forming an escape plan?" Echo asked. "Pretty please."

"Sure."

 **Yay! I'm back! Next chapter update will be soon-ish. I have to care for some ducklings. Yeah I know. Anyway, shout outs to Lux's Sister, AutumnLeaves03, BubbleEwa for their reviews. Reviewers get shout outs, Have a good night everyone.**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8-

Fives was dying. It wasn't definite but he was pretty sure it was happening. His entire chest was covered with slices from Taz's knives. His veins were burning from the green fluid that had been injected into him over and over again.

"Ray, prep me a seize 1syringe. Fill it to the brim." Taz said nonchalantly as Fives withered on the table.

"Yes sir. Why the small seize?"

"We got him." Taz whispered. "You ready to talk yet clone?" He added in a louder voice.

"Only if you agree never to talk again because your voice is annoying." Fives bit back, yet he was breaking and they all knew it. The lack of expletives in his retort proved that well enough. Fives didn't want to squeal on his brothers, he loved them. But if this kept up he might not have a choice. Fives exhaled and tried to center himself. _Just breathe, just breathe, you're ok, it'll be over soon_. He chanted to himself. The problem was Fives was completely aware that this was going until he was broken.

Taz accepted the syringe from Jif.

"Last chance clone. Save yourself some pain. Tell us anything." Taz offered.

Fives tried not to grin. They had walked right into this one.

"Ok, ok, you're both idiots and the republic will win the war. No? Intel you guys already had? Alrighty then."

Taz and Jif both made a grab for their tasers. The syringe clattered to the table, forgotten. Only Taz seized his. Taz slammed the taser into Fives's neck. Fives screamed loud enough to wake the dead. Taz pulled the taser off after 2 minutes.

"Hurts huh?" Taz muttered. "I can make the pain stop."

"Never." Fives wheezed.

Taz nodded to Jif. Jif nervously took up the syringe from its place on the table. His hands were shaking badly. Jif pushed the needle into Fives's stomach. Fives howled. His brain racked through the information he knew about the republic. Anything he could tell them that wouldn't hurt his brothers. He could lie, but odds were they would figure it out. Taz nodded at Jif who withdrew the needle. Fives tried to stop shaking.

"Tell me where you have level one bases set up." Taz whispered forcefully.

"No." Fives croaked. "I'd rather die."

Taz stepped back and tapped his comm.

""Cià, this is Taz. Do we have everything we need from the girl?"

"Yeah, she doesn't know anything we don't know. I figured we could keep her around for labor purposes, but if you have a better idea."

"Can we kill her in front of this clone I'm working? He says he'd rather die than give me any info so I figured we kill her instead."

"Sure, sounds like a good plan. This is why you're my second in command. I'll have some droids bring her up."

"Sounds good." Taz finished.

"You wouldn't dare kill Commander Tano." Fives murmured. "You wouldn't risk General Skywalker's wrath."

"We will kill her, we will kill him, and then, eventually we'll kill you, but not after we've worked you and the other clones to death." Jif interrupted.

"You just said you'd kill me, but then work me and the other clones to death, make a decision man. You can't kill me and keep me as one of your slaves too."

"Whatever," Interjected Taz. "Jif, prep me a lethal dose of green stuff. You're going to watch her die clone."

"No I won't; She'll kick your asses. I'll watch that. Quite happily too."

Two commando droids marched into the cell, dragging Ahsoka by her ankles. Her eyes were closed and one was bruising. She looked exhausted.

"Hey Fives." She breathed. Her eyes fluttered. "You're looking well."

"You are too. Excellent looking shiner really brings out your eyes."

"Thanks. Lovin' that gash on your face. Makes you look tough." She whispered half-heartedly.

"Thank you. Taz did it. When I opted not to tell him our access codes."

"Speaking of me." Taz began. "Unless one of you tells me where you have secret bases on Terbrin, then I'll inject her with a fatal amount of green serum."

"Don't you dare open you're mouth Fives." Ahsoka said with a sad smile. "I'm ready to go." Her green eyes were filled with a peaceful fear.

"You sure?" Fives met her eyes. "This Intel's not worth dying over. I have half a mind just tell them."

"Just please look me in the eye, until it's over. And when you guys do get out-and I know you will- tell Anakin I said goodbye."

"Of course." Fives murmured with a head nod.

"Hey non-clanker seppies! Get this show on the road!" Ahsoka snapped. Her ankles and wrists were chained together, but Fives suspected if she could have she would've stretched out on the floor and made herself comfortable.

"See yeah, about that." Taz began. "You're way to important to kill. We'll be ending him instead."

"Oh great, now I feel special." Fives moaned. He glanced down at Ahsoka. "Look me in the eye?" He mouthed to her. She nodded and bit her lip.

"I can try to stall." She mouthed.

"Do it."

"You know, Rex and I figured you would try this tactic on us." She started.

"Who's Rex and why do I care?" Taz asked as he tapped the syringe to get the air out.

"Rex is the angry blond." Explained Fives.

"Never heard him described that way before." Giggled Ahsoka.

"Shut up." Hissed Jif. "Both of you."

"Here Jif you do it." Taz said as he handed the needle to Jif. Jif took the needle with a sense of hunger in his eyes. Ahsoka made a face at Fives. Though they had know Jif for a span of about 48 hours give or take, he did not seem like the type to volunteer to execute a prisoner. This had to be some sort of bluff. A light switch flipped on in Ahsoka's head.

"Please no, anyone but Fives! I love him!" She sobbed. Both Jif and Taz turned to look at her. Fives looked at her like she had lost her marbles. _Go with it._ She mouthed.

"I love you too, but we can't betray the republic." He put emphasis on that last part.

"I'm sorry Fives," She howled. "I can't live without you. I have to tell them the secret bases. I'm sorry. They'll kill you."

" Ahsoka no." Fives shouted. " Do you know how many of my brothers will die if they get those exact base locations? They wouldn't even have a fighting chance. The entire place would be shelled and bombed to ruin."

"Trust me." Ahsoka mouthed. " The secret bases on Terbrin are at the following places, River Gulf Canyon, High Point, Lost Woods, Duckington Lake and Rosewood Mountain-."

"Get me a map." Taz ordered. "And get him out of here." Jif began typing furiously on a device on his arm. The 2 commando droids undid Fives's chains and began dragging him to the door. Ahsoka continued to point out places.

"Traitor!" Screeched Fives. " You should've let me die!"

Fives was dragged back to an empty barrack. He didn't know where the others were; he didn't care. All he cared about was that fact that Ahsoka had caved. Which is why, 10 minutes later, when she was tossed into the barrack, he was about ready to kill her.

"Fives please let me explain. -"

"Explain what? You broke, people are going to die now-because of you!"

"Fives, those aren't real bases."

"What?"

"They're areas that look like bases if you fly over them or just run through quickly. I would never cave, you know that."

Fives laughed. "That was the most brilliant thing I've ever heard. Sorry, It's been a long and painful day."

"It's about to get longer buddy." Said a new voice. Ace and most of the 501 stood at the opening to the barrack. "Half of you guys are getting transferred."

"To where?" Ahsoka asked.

"To another camp. I don't know who. One of our people saw the order come through the main office. We know it's you guys, and we know it's to one of the labor camps."

Everyone came in and sat down. Kix looked shaken up, but nothing his brothers couldn't fix. Echo was limping and Ahsoka made a mental note to ask about that.

Ace slid to the floor.

"All of us?" Whispered Mixer.

"No, not all of you. About half. I don't know how they'll divide it."

"How much trouble are the ones who get transferred in?" Asked Echo as he bit his lip.

"Its not as bad as you think. The potential for escape at the other camps is so much higher. I've heard the food's better too. It won't be you guys though, if the seppies are playing like I think they are, and they are; it'll be a mix of guys from the other 2 barracks."

"Why them and not us?" Fives wondered.

"You idiot" Echo took over. " All ranking officers are in here, they still want information from all of us."

"Very perceptive kid. I sent some of my guys to go tell the others. They're camp transfers so they can better prepare them. Where's Rex? And you guys are missing a medic?"

"They grabbed them both this morning along with me. Commander Tano joined me later."

"It's a bad sign that they're still not back."

"Oh hey, we got something-" Speed had begun his sentence but did not finish because Ahsoka elbowed him in the gut.

"Later" She mouthed at him.

"I got to go, I don't feel like using the tunnels and the guards get out of dinner soon." Apologized Ace. "I see you all tomorrow come what may."

Ace excited the barrack quietly and began to head back to his place.

"Why'd you cut me off?" Speed asked Ahsoka.

"Something's off. I don't know what it is and it's probably my imagination but-"

"Better safe than sorry. Fives, long story short we found a taser and now it's in the tunnel under the barrack." Jesse interrupted.

"Cool." Muttered Fives.

"Bed, now all of you, bed" Boxer ordered.

 **S/O's to DarthTopaz, BubbleEwa (the duckies are doing well), Lux's Sister, PhantomxWolf, Spun {I have a theory about who you are my mysterious anon friend (If you are who I think you are then you'll laugh when you see this)}. The guest and AutumnLeaves03. I did not proofread this because of reasons. If you find a mistake please don't be a jerk. Reviewers get shoutouts, Be safe guys XoXo, Rokawk15.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Oh hell no! We have to at least try to form an escape plan!" Declared Speed.

"Speed, why do you always resist bedtimes?" Boxer muttered.

Echo nodded. "I agree with Speed. If no one's going to be coming for us then we have to get out on our own." He was curled up next to Fives, clearly happy to have his brother back by his side.

"Master Kenobi will figure it out. He's tracked Anakin down loads of times. Adding us to the equation is only going to make it easier for him." Ahsoka said. Though she sounded like she was trying to convince herself as well as the others.

Jesse bit his lip. "Maybe there's a way we can we can help him out a bit."

"How? This isn't like sneaking out of the barracks on a Friday night. If we gat caught we're dead." Kix countered.

"If Wolffe catches you sneaking out of the barracks you're dead." Pointed out Coric. "At least this way we're risking it for something other than alcohol."

"Beer is worth risking your life for." Inputted Fives. Echo opened his mouth to argue but Ahsoka got their first.

"As someone whose seen you all fight over drinking before, let's move on." She interrupted.

"If we escape, we only help ourselves; if we get a signal to the republic, we help everyone here." Theorized Denal.

"But if we escape then we can give the republic more information that would help with a rescue OP." Ahsoka chimed in.

"If we escape, what happens to everyone still here?" Cautioned Burner. "Would they kill everyone to maintain secrecy?" The thought sunk in over everyone.

"Didn't think of that." Sighed Ahsoka. She frowned. Her men could see the gears in her head turning, searching for a way to save them all, not finding anything. "I miss Master Skywalker. He'd figure us a way out of this."

"Hey, we're not that bad are we?" Echo asked.

"I for one, think we are hilarious." Grinned Fives.

"Focus." Hissed Denal. "If we don't come up with something soon, our odds of escape or rescue decrease significantly. And even if we do, our job becomes 2x as much work since we'll have to save the rest of the legion at the other camp too."

" We're busting everyone out, that's all I know for sure." Ahsoka said with a sense of sense of determination. "I have no idea how, but we're doing it."

"Didn't you and Echo start planning something while you were pushing the mine carts?" Kix reminded the two.

"Less than 30 seconds after we decided to make a preliminary escape plan two commando droids showed up and dragged me away." Ahsoka pointed out. "Although Fives and I did have a bit of fun."

Fives gave the grope a devious grin. "Once I got over my confusion of your sudden declaration of a burning passion for me, yeah it was kinda fun to watch their faces."

"I thought I wanted to know but turns out I don't." Burner whispered.

"Story of my life." Replied Echo.

"Guys, seriously though. There are no bad ideas." Ahsoka reminded everyone. "Master Skywalker is probably working on breaking out right now and we need to at least have an outline of a plan so it looks like we didn't spend the whole time goofing off."

"Maybe we can find a way to drop the republic a line?" Suggested Jesse.

"I'm imaging how that conversation would go." Snorted Speed.

Fives cracked up. "That would be one of the funniest things I've ever heard. 'Hey guys, 501 here, can you please come save us from the sadistic seppies that are holding us hostage along with several other brothers."

"If we got a hold of Fox he'd probably just be delighted that we're not there to beat him and his men at beer pong anymore." Coric bragged.

"Coric, you're horrible at beer pong." Kix reminded him playfully.

"If we called the 212 Master Kenobi wouldn't even be surprised. He's so used to us getting into trouble all the time." Ahsoka snickered.

"It's not our fault that we get into tough situations more then they do." Protested Mixer. "Trouble seems to just..."

"Find us?" Finished the rest of the group.

"I wish the republic would find us." Muttered Kix. "How hard can it possibly be?"

"It's a big galaxy." Ahsoka said with a sad laugh. "I'm sure those who were here earlier were saying the same about us." She curled her legs up to rest of her body and leaned her head against Fives's shoulders.

"I'm just going to lean against you for a bit ok Fives?"

"Sure thing kid. I'm a great pillow. Ask Echo."

"Hey Echo," Ahsoka called out. "Is Fives a good pillow?"

"Decent, yeah." Came the reply.

"If we're going to talk about Fives's talent at pillow-ing, do it in the morning. We need Rex to keep us focused, escape plans not happening tonight. Commander Tano can barely keep her eyes open and Speed looks like he's about to pass out. Not that I'm complaining about that of course. Besides, tomorrow is going to suck. We're losing half of the family." Kix declared. His inner medic was coming back.

Ahsoka stood up on shaky legs. "Alright, so the plan is if you see a chance, send a transmission to the nearest republic legion or outpost in the best fitting manner. Either will do."

"We're probably not even going to get the chance to day goodbye to them." Breathed Burner.

"Hot damn, I hope Leaps's wound set properly." Kix muttered. Full medic Kix was back. Which was probably good considering what was coming for those who weren't being transferred.

"Do you think we could use the tunnels to sneak over there?" Echo questioned. His tone was even and very do-you-think-we-could-do-this? but his face said that he thought he had come up with the best idea in the world.

"There are so many," Ahsoka sighed. "That single tunnel system is more extensive than anything I saw on Geonosis with Barriss. We don't know our way around down there and getting lost would-"

"Wait, hold up" Jesse interrupted "You and Comander Offee survived underneath the wreckage because you used some scrape and bits to produce a signal which General Skywalker picked up on his comm. And was able to locate the both of you."

"Yeah?" Ahsoka began. Sudden realization dawned on her face. "The taser! If I can build a transmitter, then if I can tap into Master Kenobi's or Master Plo's comm channels, we'd be home by morning practically!"

"That's a lot of if's" Cautioned Boxer. "Can we really risk our only weapon?"

Fives glanced at Ahsoka who was now perched on the lower bunk. "Do it."

Jesse scrambled underneath the bed that covered the entrance to the tunnels to retrieve the taser.

"If you have spare bits and pieces to anything, pass them over. I'm not asking how you got them." Ahsoka spoke quickly as the taser and a few odds and ends were passed over to her. She picked up the taser and held it up to the light.

"Guys, go to bed. This might take awhile. Go get some sleep." She whispered as she ran her thumbnail along the casing of the taser. The medics, knowing the value of sleeping when possible, quickly dispersed throughout the barrack. Speed and Denal did as well. Fives, Echo, and Jesse all sat down around her.

"Guys go to sleep." She ordered.

"Commander, last night 3 seppies manages to get in here without waking any of us." Echo began.

"So we'll keep watch and keep you company while you work on the transmitter." Fives continued.

"And we'll make sure you don't fall asleep." Jesse finished.

Ahsoka glanced up at the 3 of them without stopping. "Hey, I've never fallen asleep when I was doing something before."

"Yes you did." Echo snorted. "You were doing those mission reports. Remember?"

"Something important." Ahsoka corrected herself. "If you're all going to exhaust yourselves, you might as well be useful."

Echo pulled an assortment of spare parts off his belt. "These might help. I would've given them to you earlier but I didn't want Speed to know I had them."

Ahsoka gave a small laugh. "Why don't you want Speed to know you have these?" She asked as she picked up an copper coupling from the small pile.

"Less you know less you can say in interrogation." Was his reply.

"You need better lighting." Fives noted. He pulled a helmet light off his belt.

"How'd you manage to keep your helmet light?" Jesse questioned. "I didn't get to keep my helmet light. Did you get to keep your helmet light?" He directed this last part at Echo who shook his head.

"It broke off the actual helmet long time ago. If we need them for a mission typically I just use some duck tape to put it on and pull it off once its over. It was on my belt when I got captured. Guess they didn't search me."

"Thank you, seppie laziness." Ahsoka commented. "Hold the light right there, yes, perfect. This just got 10x easier."

"Do you think they forgot to search you or do you think they did and just dismissed it?" Echo wondered aloud. "You'd think they would've remembered something like that."

"Wouldn't be the first time the clankers have dismissed us because we're clones." Jesse muttered. "They do that a lot."

"And every damn time that's their downfall." Said Fives with a hint of a smile.

"What's their endgame?" Ahsoka began. "The things they're doing don't make sense."

"They don't make sense to you because you're not a sadistic separatist hell-bent on killing people." Fives snickered.

"Thanks for reassuring me Fives." Ahsoka continued. "But look at everything. It just doesn't add up. What's the point of keeping all the ranking officers together? If I were them, I wouldn't do that because we'd all agree what to answer to certain questions. We could get all of our information so in sync that it would be impossible for them to know what was true and what wasn't."

"You think they…" Fives stopped short. He made a fist and slammed the heel of his hand into twice. It was the hand signal for bugs. Not the buzzing kind of bugs, mind you. That was one tap, 2 taps meant the listening kind of bugs. Ahsoka glanced at Echo and Jesse anxiously. A million thoughts were racing through her head.

"Let's just cover all our bases." She mouthed. Echo nodded. As did Jesse.

"This is hopeless." Ahsoka spat angrily. She didn't stop working though. The fire in her eyes was far from out.

"Yeah. This was just a bad plan in general." Jesse agreed.

"We'll figure something else out when Rex gets back." Fives suggested. "We're kinda useless without Rex."

"Just destroy the pieces of the taser now. There's no way you can put it back together. If we don't let them get the pieces its at least a small win." Echo ordered. To anyone listening, it sounded as if the four of them had given up and were trying salvage the day. Far from it in fact.

"How?" Ahsoka sassed. "It's not like I've got a handy dandy light saber on me." Her movements were rushed now. Fives stood up and boosted himself up to the top bunk. He began to feel around on the ceiling. His eyes went wide for a minute then he slid back down with the others.

"There's one up there." He mouthed.

"Fuck." Breathed Ahsoka. She though quickly covered for herself. "I pinched my finger."

Echo looked at her. "You know the curse words?" He demanded.

"Yeah?" She answered.

"This whole damn war we've been avoiding cursing around you because we thought you didn't know them yet?" Jesse said as he buried his head in his hands. "All those times, getting ambushed, getting shot, nearly getting blown up, we didn't cuss."

"Help me crush these." Ahsoka hooked two wires onto a small metal fragment and began pressing the spark of the taser to the metal.

"Sure." Echo snorted. Now that they knew the barrack was actually bugged, every word had to be chosen with care. A single slip could have horrible outcomes.

"Fives." Ahsoka broke her line of sight from her work to mouth. "Now they know we lied."

Fives got a panicked look in eyes. "We're screwed." He didn't bother mouthing those words. Saying things like that in the situation they were in was to be expected.

"I doubt they're monitoring it live." Echo soothed. "My guess is they have a filter that flags anytime certain keywords are said. Those keywords would all probably have to do with escape. You guys are good."

Ahsoka glanced down to the transmitter in her hands. It was rudimentary as hell, but Anakin would be proud. "Who should I try first?" She muttered. "Master Plo or Master Kenobi?"

"Whoever's closest." Jesse smiled. " I never actually thought that would work."

* * *

"You lazy ass." Ciá scolded Taz. "You honestly risked our prisoners getting a weapon on the off chance they would try to assemble a transmitter signal? You couldn't even be bothered to do basic research on republic locations?"

"Well it worked didn't it? Besides, all that's coded. We don't have those codes. This group is difficult but they'll yield those codes in time in time."

"We should go to bed." Ciá continued. "Big day tomorrow. We're shipping that group off to the South Camp."

"Think they'll miss the Compound?" Snickered Taz. "I would if I were going where they're going- wait here we go. Signal is transmitting-see they did figure it out- and-oh it has a bit of a ways to go, the nearest Cruiser is really far away-oh now it's there, it's poking around trying to be noticed. But it's so weak they can't see it."

"Who got it?" Ciá asked. Her eyes lit up the way they always did when capturing another group became a possibility.

"212th. Hot damn. Didn't one of the clones say that group would never let them live this down?" Taz's whole face was lit up in a grin.

"We can't catch them all. That'd get us much to visibility. I say we start planning for 2 barracks worth." Cià ordered.

"I assume you mean to relocate 2 barracks of 501 clones-and I also assume you mean the ones without the officers- and restock them with 212 clones?"

"Why not?"

"You never answered my question earlier. The one about the clones missing it here." He reminded her.

"Aw, South Camp's not that bad. It's North Camp you should be scared for."

"Don't remind me. Remember that time during our training? When there was a clone riot. God, there was more blood on my hands from that day then this whole war."

Ciá smiled. "But we broke the riot. Just like we'll break this group. And we can't do that unless we go to bed."

Taz yawned. "You deny that you're the mother duck friend yet you've already put Ray and Jif to bed, have scolded me for taking an unnessacary risk, and now you're trying to make me go to bed."

"Shut up you." She punched him in the arm.

"Have you briefed Jif on what transfers are like? You walked him through the entire thing?"

"From pumping the barrack full of knock out gas to loading the bodies onto the train. No muss, no fuss." She said proudly.

"Great, well, it has been a pleasure enjoying your company Lieutenant Ciá. I'm off to bed and I am ordering you to do the same."

"Yeah, bedtime."

 **Shout outs to DarthTopaz, AutumnLeaves03, and Lux's Sister for their reviews. The duckies are doing well. Have a good night guys, Rokawk15.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10-

Anakin and pain were practically on a first name basis. Really the two of them were old childhood friends. Anakin had taken every beating he'd ever been dealt he'd taken stoically. Every beating-that is-except this one. Ray was delivering the worst beating Anakin had ever felt.

"Feel like talking yet, Jedi?" Ray demanded as he yanked Anakin head up from the floor by his hair.

"You hit like my padawan before we taught her how to throw a real punch." Anakin sassed. It probably would've come across as more threating if his mouth were not full of blood and were his lips not swollen. This also affected the coherency of his statement. It came off sounding, "You hif like my padawapghf beforg we fought her how to throw a realght punch."

Ray snorted. "Please, your padawan still can't hit for anything." Apparently Ray was fluent in mumblings by tortured prisoners. Who knew?

"I wonder if we could loosen your tongue by bringing you someone to talk to." Ray mused. "Yes I think that would be good. "

Anakin shook his head. "Never talk." _Great now I sound like an angry toddler._ Ray pressed his comm.

"Bring me the clone." Anakin felt his gut tighten. He liked all of his men, they were good guys. Brave, loyal, and honorable every single one of 'em. But when it came down to choosing between one of them and keeping the information that the republic would need, it wasn't a contest. They understood that, he understood that. It sucked. But it was necessary. Anakin closed his eyes and tries to ignore the twisting feeling in his gut. He supposed he should be grateful, Ray was just watching instead of beating him up. He heard the cell door slid open and the sound of a body being tossed to the floor next to him.

"Hey sir." A familiar voice muttered. Anakin opened his eyes and almost wished he hadn't. It was Rex on the floor with him but it wasn't. He looked awful (and that was putting it nicely) Both of Rex's eyes were bruised and blooded. One looked like it was swollen shut. There were knife cuts all around his body, but the worst looked to be about 4 inches long on his cheek. It would defiantly need stiches. His trademark blond buzz cut was caked with mud and more blood. The upper half of his armor was gone (which was a shame since Anakin knew how much work Rex had put into the paint.) His torso was covered in blood, way too much of it for it to belong just to him. Ray and The seppie who had dragged Rex in just leaned against the wall along with Ray as if they were waiting for a touching reunion or an argument. They wouldn't get either since both their comms bleeped and Cia's voice filled the room.

"Time to move the groups. Tie up whatever you're doing and be here in less than 5."

"Taz good buddy, they're tied up already, you just wanna leave 'em on the floor?" Ray asked without taking his eyes of the two men on the floor.

"Sure." He replied. They both casually strolled out of the room as if they were leaving a party and not a torture cell.

"Rex, you're looking well." Anakin began. Rex just groaned. "You know what this reminds me of?" Anakin continued. "One of our first missions together. The one on Fersmont." Anakin thought he heard Rex laugh.

"Wasn't that the one where our ship got shot down and we had to trek 5 miles through jungle to get to the closest base which happened to belong to the clankers to we had to scape them all then steal a ship?"

"No that was Demese. Fersmont was the one where Obi-wan got captured and we had to walk through 7 miles to go rescue him."

"Why would that remind you of this?" Rex whispered.

Anakin gave a sad half smile. "I'm not sure. You doing ok?"

Rex curled up as far into a ball as his bonds would let him. "I'm fine sir, are you alright?"

"Rex you're not fine. Whose blood is that?"

Rex bit his lip and looked away. "Frisk's" He murmured. "They carved him up and, and he was already dead but-" Rex's breath caught in his throat. "I just can't, sir, I'm sorry."

"It's ok, you're ok." Anakin attempted to soothe him. "We'll get out of this in one piece. Obi-wan's tracked us down every time we've gotten into trouble. This'll be no different."

"Are you ok sir?"

"I'm still breathing. Have you seen any of the others?"

"Yeah," Rex smiled. "Commander Tano's fine, or as fine as one can be in this place. Everyone else is too. They're going to kill me as soon as they get back so I should tell you everything we know."

"I'm not letting them hurt you, but some new information would be nice."

"Thanks sir, anyway. We're in the interrogation building of a prisoner of war camp. The entire 501 is here, as well as a bunch of other guys from various legions. They're on our side. The head separatist here seems to be a woman named Cià. If I had to guess I'd say her second in command is a man named Taz. They may or may not be romantically involved. It's hard to tell. Her muscle is the delightful Ray who was interrogating you when Taz dragged me in. Their newbie is young and eager to prove himself but also slightly sympathetic. I think his name's Jif. And I don't think these guys have read the Mandalore Code, which forbids torture and conscripted labor."

"Conscripted labor? You guys? I can barely get you all out bed on a good day." Anakin laughed. But deep down he was troubled. The thing that made the 501 so special, the thing that bonded them all together was a common stoke of rebelliousness. Getting his men to do anything they didn't want to, be it turning in their patrol reports on time or making their beds, was impossible. If they lost that spark, they were truly lost.

"Yeah surprisingly guns at our heads are a great motivator."

"I'll have to remember that. You guys don't happen to have an escape plan do you?"

"None that I'm aware of sir. The others might've come up with something. I haven't seen them for a day or so."

"What about the other clones here? Any escape plans you heard rumors about?"

"None sir, they say it isn't possible. They're much more focused on sabotage."

"I hope Obi-wan gets here soon." Anakin sighed. "When I actually need him he's never there."

"Or General Plo, or General Fisto. Really anyone showing up would be good." Rex added.

"We need to make a plan. We probably don't have long." Anakin mused.

"Sir with al due respect what kind of a plan can we come up with? We're both tied up. The only thing we can do is wait and hope is there in a good mood."

"Come on Rex, have a little faith. There's a giant table full of knives. If we can knock a knife off I bet I can use it to pick our cuffs. Once we get free we can hobble around until we find a transmitter then get a signal to…someone and be back here before they notice."

"I'm game. How do we get the knife of the table?"

"Normally I would just use the force but these cuffs are force restrictive and that's messing with me. The shock collars not helping either."

Rex sat up on his knees and almost immediately doubled over in pain.

"I was not nice enough to Cody when he had broken ribs." He muttered. Anakin laughed.

"The real reason we all got captured-karma needed to get you."

"Ha-ha." Rex huffed as he stood on shaky legs.

"Lean against the wall." Anakin suggested. Rex glanced down at the table spread before him.

"What kind of knife do you need sir? Depressingly, there are a lot on here."

"Longer and sharper the better. Or you know what, a needle would work even better. "

"Well there are lots of those on here." Rex picked one up and tossed it to the floor near Anakin. "I'm going to admire the irony that we're using their tools to escape."

"You've been spending to much time with Obi-wan." Noted Anakin as he fiddled with the needle in his cuffs. "He makes lectures like that out of everything."

"So I've heard."

"Almost got it…almost got it... Got it!" Anakin happily exclaimed. He bent to undo the cuffs around his ankles.

"I never thought that would work." Rex grinned.

"Still got a way's to go but it's a start." Anakin agreed. "Let me at yours."

Rex held out his wrists. It took Anakin 23 seconds to get them off.

"A new record!" He exclaimed with a certain glee in his voice.

"Nice sir." Rex muttered.

"Let's go." Anakin ordered as he pulled Rex's arm over his shoulder.

"Don't need to tell me twice."

The duo limped out of the cell and down the hall.

"We have no idea where were going do we?" Rex asked a few minutes in.

"Sort of." Replied Anakin. "Communications will be on the highest level. How many other buildings are there?"

"Not many other big ones. Here, a place I think the guards sleep, a mess 'hall' this is by far the tallest. "

"Then we're in the right building."

"Why can't they ever decorate their creepy dark hallways with maps?"

"Back. Droid." Anakin ordered. He slid out from behind a corner with Rex in tow.

" We're good, I don't know but it sure would make breaking out a lot easier."

"Left sir, there's a turbo-lift."

"Good catch."

The turbo-lift took them to the top of the building, which was clearly a communications center.

Anakin slid in to the control panel.

"Our tech is so much cooler." He commented. Rex rolled his eyes. Anakin grinned.

"I don't know why no one is here but let's go with it. I'm going to message Obi-wan."

"Tell Cody I said hi." Requested Rex.

Anakin tapped at the keyboard for a few minutes.

"Got it. Let's go."

"I'm don't want to go back to that cell."

"I know buddy. I don't either. We can do thins though. We'll be ok." Getting back was far easier than expected. Anakin could sense Rex's fear about going back. What the seps had done to Rex to make him so afraid Anakin didn't want to know. Anakin and Rex slid down to the floor on the cell. All in all the escapade had taken roughly 5 minutes.

Anakin picked up the same needle he had used to pick their cuffs. "Turn your head."

"Why?" Asked Rex. But he did as he was instructed.

"I'm going to screw up your shock collar so if they try to turn it on it won't work."

"Nice." Rex said with a tone of admiration in his voice.

"You still have your belt?"

"Yes sir."

"Take the needle with you. You're going to get put back the others eventually. Do the same to their collars. It's pretty simple. Just disconnect the red and blue wires from the motor while the needle is in the motor-hole. Ahsoka knows how to do it. If Obi-wan's late that should buy you guys some peace of mind. Fake it if you have to."

"Will do sir."

"Alright I've got put the cuffs back on now."

"Do it sir." It took Anakin 34 seconds to get Rex's cuffs back on and 45 seconds for his own.

"I'm slower than usual." He commented.

"You just haven't practiced in awhile." Rex soothed. Anakin handed him the needle. Rex pulled a protein bar off his belt.

"I took a page from Echo's book and packed extra. Want some?"

Anakin wanted to protest but his stomach growled in protest.

"Sure. I miss hanging out together when we're not getting shot at."

"The days of smuggling beer and sneaking junk food." Rex reminisced as he broke the bar and gave half to Anakin.

"Thanks. We should eat quickly. They'll be back soon."

"Don't go getting nervous on me sir."

Anakin was about to respond when they heard footsteps in the hall. Rex shoved his protein bar in his mouth in one swift move. Anakin took it slower and did it in 2 bites.

Ray and Taz walked into the cell looking like they wanted to kill someone _. Bad news for me._ Thought Rex.

"So we made a mistake, big deal." Ranted Ray.

"It's not our fault these ones have high tolerance." Taz agreed.

"It was time to push ages ago. Cià's going soft." Ray muttered.

"Ray, we need to knock them out now." Taz reminded him. Rex sent a panicked look toward Anakin. Anakin responded with a "stay-calm" nod.

"Fine." Ray grumbled as he pulled his taser of his belt.

"We'll have fun in a few hours." Taz teased him while he took up his own taser. "Group is always fun."

"It'll be a group of 2." Complained Ray. "Cià will be on point. All we get to do is stand in the back."

Rex glanced at Anakin. _Should we fight?_ He mouthed.

Anakin lifted his head ever so slightly. To anyone else it meant that Anakin was trying to get more comfortable as he watched the drama unfold before him. To anyone n the 501, it meant attack on my signal.

Rex nodded. _Rematch time._ Taz and Ray both struck without warning. One minute they were having a lovely conversation about their boss, the next they were both flying at their captives, tasers brandished. Anakin flipped himself up and over Ray. He landed on his feet and got his arms around Ray's neck. Pulling the cuffs tight in a choke hold, he didn't even need to look over to know Rex had done the same substituting a roll for the flip.

"Now what?" Rex asked Anakin.

"Now you go to sleep." Taz answered. He grappled for something off his belt while using one hand to soften Rex's cuffs at his neck.

"Night night." Ray roared as he plunged something into Anakin's stomach.

Anakin met Rex's eyes and had just enough time to mouth "Be strong buddy." Before they both hit the dirt.

 **Net update will probably be in two days providing no ducks decide to remake "The Great Escape", no neighborhood kids throw pebbles at my window asking if I want to play manhunt in the woods, and no siblings beg for fro-yo. Shoutouts to Lux's Sister, AutumnLeaves03, and DarthTopaz for their reviews. Rewiewers get** **shoutouts and eternal gratitude.**


	11. the clones are up to no good

Chapter 11-

Anakin opened his eyes.

"Rex?" He called out tiredly.

"Master?" A voice called out. "Master!"

Ahsoka! Anakin fully roused from his sleep. He and Ahsoka were both tied down to 2 identical tables next to each other. They were in a new cell, which was a nice change of scenery from his past few days. This cell was darker than his old one. A cart blocked most of his view of her. From what he could see, she looked roughed up, but no serious injuries.

"Hey snips."

"So, master, whadya in for?" Anakin couldn't hide his grin. His padawan was alright, she was here, and she was clearly ready to kick some ass. The separatists had just united the two biggest mouths in the entire GAR. This was a mistake they would not pay lightly for.

"Oh, you know how it is snips, the usual. What about you? Get into any trouble with the boys?"

"Just the usual master, would've gotten into more trouble had the 212 been here. Tried to give them a shout but I don't think they got it. Shame."

"Oh well." Laughed Anakin. He winked at her. Ahsoka's eyes grew wide as saucers for a moment but she nodded her head. She got the message.

"Hey you haven't happened to see Rex recently have you?" Ahsoka kept her tone amicable and light but there was worry in her voice.

"Actually, I have." Anakin answered, glad he could provide at least some comfort to her. "Saw him for a few minutes. We spilt a ration bar. Good times. How are the rest of our boys?"

Ahsoka shifted her weight. "They're good. The officers are the only ones still here though. The rest got transferred to some other camp."

Anakin gave her a sad smile. "It'll be ok snips. Just have a little faith."

"I'm just frustrated because I can't fight back." Muttered Ahsoka.

"I know, snips, I know."

Ahsoka was about to comment on their current situation when in strolled Cià and her pack. Taz looked slightly scared of his leader, Ray looked as though he was looking forward to he carnage that was about to occur, and Jif- Jif had that look on his face that Ahsoka figured was pretty similar to her own after she got back from her first firefight, it was a what-have-I-gotten-myself-into-face.

"Who shall we begin with?" Cià whispered as she strutted down the isle between the tables. "Shall it be the tiny padawan, who barely survived out last encounter or the Jedi who can barely protect the ones he loves?"

"Master, can I curse?" Ahsoka asked.

"Fire at will." Responded Anakin.

"Go fuck yourself." Ahsoka ordered.

"Hey." Anakin intervened. "Language. Credit in the swear jar when we get back."

"You just said I could curse!"

"I said you could curse I said nothing about you being exempt from the swear jar."

"Jesse's been cursing the entire mission! So has Fives, and Kix, even Echo!"

"Well I didn't hear them curse, I heard you." Anakin rolled his eyes. "Teenagers, am I right?" He directed this last statement at their captors. Cià smiled sweetly at Ahsoka.

"I can make him scream so loudly he'll never hear you curse again."

"No thanks." Ahsoka replied emphatically. "Wait…."

"Let's move on." Anakin declared.

"Sounds good to me." Muttered Ahsoka.

"Couldn't agree more." Laughed Cià. She pulled a knife of the cart and ran her finger along the blade. "Where shall we begin?"

"Hey Ahsoka?"

"Yeah master?"

"Curse all you want."

* * *

"Guys, I'm fine." Rex insisted.

"Rex," Kix began, "You were just tortured, pretty sure I saw you hit your head when they tossed you back in here, you're covered in blood-clearly not yours, you are not fine! Lay down and tell us what's been happening."

"Normal interrogation stuff." Rex insisted. "You know the usual stuff."

Boxer raised an eyebrow. Fives shook his head. Jesse looked like he wanted to face palm, Coric actually did face palm. Echo just sighed loudly.

"Guys scram." Kix ordered.

"Where are we supposed to go."? Speed muttered. "It's not like the barracks at home."

"I don't care just give us space." Kix replied. He slid in next to Rex.

"Its Frisk's blood isn't it."? Kix whispered. Rex drew in a deep breath and nodded.

"He was already dead." Rex murmured.

"Doesn't make it any easier." Kix commented. Rex nodded.

"They should've come to get us by now." He noticed. "Not that I'm complaining."

"They're probably busy with the general and commander." Kix theorized.

"How is she?" Rex asked. "I just saw the general, he's doing alright."

"She was good. Exhausted, but fine."

"Hopefully she'll get some sleep."

"Doubtful, but we can hope. Come here." Kix pulled Rex tight into a hug.

"General Skywalker and I got a message to General Kenobi."

"Really? So did we! We built a transmitter out of taser parts. Also the barrack is bugged."

"No surprise there." Scoffed Rex.

"Hey Ace!" Came a joyous shout from the front of the barrack.

"Hey guys. We may have a problem or an opportunity." Ace announced. A few of his other men stood behind him. They all looked like they had been here for varying amounts of time. "The seps haven't started any work shifts, and our spies haven't seen them since around 3am."

Echo spoke up. "That's about when they dumped Rex back with us and hauled Commander Tano away."

Ace sat down. "We have a window of about 5 hours before they realize they have other prisoners they need to check up on. This is really good news guys, I wasn't expecting another window like this for at least another month."

"Why?" Asked Fives. "Commander Tano and General Skywalker are getting tortured and you think that's good news?" A few others murmured in agreement.

"Settle down," Ace prompted. "It's not good that they're getting tortured, but all of the seps are busy. We can get something done."

"Which is where we come in." Said one of Ace's men. "My name's Wings. This is Breaker, and you all know Shockwave." Breaker gave a shy wave. Shockwave rolled his eyes as if he wished he were anywhere but here. Not that Rex could blame him.

"We were wondering if you guys felt up to a little troublemaking." Explained Breaker.

"Hell yes." Responded Echo.

"I haven't blown anything up in 4 days 3 hours and 23 minutes." Speed pleaded. "Please let me blow something up!"

Ace chuckled. "You can blow something up."

Rex straightened up. They had a mission again, they were soldiers. "What do you need us to do?"

"Take half your men and Wings. You can steal some grenades, Wings will show you where, Blow up the mines. If we can stop the metal mining we can help slow down the bomb production. Bonus points if you can make it loom like a natural occurrence."

"Challenge accepted." Said Speed.

"The other half would be with me." Explained Breaker. "We'll be breaking into the seps main office. We'll be able to get a shitload of information."

Echo grinned. "Sounds like a good time."

"How do we know we won't encounter any guards?" Asked Rex.

"We don't." Ace replied. "You could die at any moment."

"Bring it." Asserted Coric.

Ace glanced at Rex. "Who goes with who?"

"Easy." Rex replied. "Echo, you take Kix, Coric, Fives, Jesse, Boxer, and Denal. Go with Breaker. Everyone else go with Wings."

"What about you?" Asked Echo.

"Well, if Rex doesn't mind, I figured the 2 of us could run a little kitchen raid."

"Sounds good." Laughed Rex.

Ace opened the entrance to the tunnel. "Let's roll."

 **Shout out to PhantomxWolf and Lux's Sister. Next chapter will probably go up sometime on Friday because of Wi-Fi and Cross Country. Shout outs to those who review.**


	12. Mischief Is Being Managed

Rex hadn't had this much fun in ages. He and Ace had taken to the rooftops and were running along them. Rex had to admit it was faster then the ground since they didn't have to duck and hide from the droids that patrolled there. The view was also a hell of a lot nicer. He could finally see that the camp was in the middle of dirt clearing. Forests stood in the faraway distance. Ace was right; escape would be next to impossible. There was too much visibility between here and the woods. Unless they stole a speeder…

"I know what you're thinking and they keep all the speeders on lockdown. Granted, no ones tried just outright running right after they lock us all in our barracks, probably because no one can run that fast. Search lights remember?"

Rex smiled sheepishly as they leaned against the slope of one roof. "Was it that obvious?"

"When you've been here as long as I have, yeah. Escape is impossible. Resistance is the best we can do. By the way, how was your turn with our friendly captors?"

Rex shrugged. "I didn't break, I saw my general, and we shared a ration bar. We got electrocuted, normal stuff."

"That's not you blood. You were still missing a man when we left the barracks few minutes ago." Ace murmured sympathetically. He stopped moving and looked Rex in the eye.

"How'd you know." Rex breathed softly.

"Because they did the exact same thing to me and one of my buddies. The nightmare still shows up every once and awhile." Ace choked over the last few words as if the nightmare came back far more often than he implied.

"How long have you been here?"

"Long time. I was with the 332." Ace whispered sadly. Rex racked his brain for everything he knew about the 332. He didn't have any friends with them, he had barely heard anything about them throughout the entire war. Except- one morning at breakfast with Wolffe, Cody, and Gree in the early days of the war. Gree had been saying something about how a crusier had gone missing near the area he and his men were being deployed to. Wolffe had shrugged it off saying that the jedi probably just gone rouge for a few days and had taken her men with her. Cody had been more interested in the fact that his food might've just moved. The wreckage was found the a few weeks later. It had been assumed no one survived but, here was Ace.

"We thought the crusier crashed into a nearby system. They told us they didn't find any survivors."

"From the crash, there were plenty. By the time Cià and her people brought us here, there were 7. Down to 3 now, Breaker, Wings, and me. The funny thing is back when the entire legion was still alive we hated each other, now I would take a bullet for any of them without even thinking."

"I know that feeling." Muttered Rex.

"Don't we all." Replied Ace. "Oh hey , we're here." Rex glanced down. Nothing looked really special about the roof. The guard's barracks looked like they were close by but other than that same tin roof that every other building had.

"I thought the kitchen was over there."

"It is. This is a normal empty barrack as far as the guards think we know. It's actually where they stash their food."

"Like D-Rations?"

"Uh-uh, Civilian grade stuff. They have a food smuggling operation that would rival the one the cadets have on Kamino. They even get junk food packages from their families." Ace explained. "And even better, every time we raid this they turn on each other. They're that confident we know nothing."

Rex smiled his first full-blown smile in days. "Let's do this." Ace slid one of the roof panels off and dropped down. Rex went immediately after. They landed in complete darkness. Ace clapped his hands twice and the lights flickered on.

"Motion sensor lights." He explained to Rex's astonished face. "The seps put them in as a security measure around the camp. Here I think it was mainly for cool purposes."

"Seps do love looking cool." Rex agreed as he stared at the stashes of food that surrounded the duo.

"Come on." Ace laughed as he tossed Rex a cloth bag. "Fill 'er up. Mostly apples this round. We're bringing food to the guys in the cooler first."

"Remember when the master chiefs told us smuggling food to our brothers in isolation for punishment wasn't helping anyone?"

Ace grinned. "I used to be able to take 3 ration bars at a time. What was you're record?" He asked as he dumped two loaves of bread and a few apples into his bag.

"Mainly I was the one in isolation."

"Rex, you didn't strike me as the rebellious cadet type."

"I wasn't." Rex answered as he stashed a few more pieces of fruit into his bag. "My friends were."

"Ready to roll? We'll be coming back in about a half hour. Cooler's like 7 roof tops away."

"Yep."

Ace swung his bag over his shoulder and began to scale a pile of crates to get back out of the barrack. Rex followed.

"Where to?" He asked when the both stood on the roof.

"That way." Ace pointed.

"I'm on point." Rex declared and jumped to the next rooftop.

"What? No fair! Point is mine!" Ace chased after him. They jumped over the next few rooftops in sync, throwing themselves to the roof when there droids on the ground.

"We're here." Ace informed him. "This jump is the hardest part." Rex glanced at the building in front of them. They would have to jump down about 12 feet with no gear. Compared to the wall on Geonosis, this was nothing.

"General Skywalker's in there. Commander Tano's with him."

"They'll be fine. The seps still need them alive. You'll know if anything happens. They'll make sure you know."

"I hope so." Rex murmured. "I hope so." Ace jumped and rolled out his extra energy at the bottom. Rex hurled himself off and mentally congratulated himself for not screaming. He and Ace pressed their backs to the stone building.

"Wait till you meet these guys." Ace chuckled as he tapped the lower brick wall twice. "They're a good kind of crazy." Two quick raps came back from the other side. Ace pressed what seemed to be a normal stone. A door slid open. Rex's eyes went wide.

"In fairness, we did not build this door. We found it accidently one day. No idea why its here but shame to waste it." Ace and Rex stepped through the door into the dark.

It took both a minute for his eyes to adjust and to realize why they called this area the cooler. It was freezing. The light overhead was an eerie green, which helped with visibility a bit. It did make the area much more creepy. That was probably the purpose. He and Ace were standing in the middle of a hallway lined with clear plastic cell doors. The cells were concrete and bare. Most of them had clones curled up in the corners to conserve body heat. Rex recognized some of them as the men who had refused to work their first day here. Whatever courage they had mustered then seemed to be gone now. One of them glanced up.

"Ace!"

"Hey Bolt, How are you?" Ace knelt down near the door of the cell.

"Cold. Did you guys bring food? We're starving."

"Yeah we brought food. When was the last time you guys ate." He addressed the last part to all the clones.

"Yesterday morning. We got a piece of bread each." Answered another brother.

"Whose the newbie?" Asked a third.

Rex figured they meant him. "The name's Rex. Captain of the 501 legion led by General Anakin Skywalker."

Bolt shot up his eyes. "They got your whole legion together didn't they? Typically when they get guys from pick pocket missions they don't introduce themselves like that."

"Yeah it wasn't our finest moment." Rex agreed.

"I honestly don't give a fuck about any of that shit. If you guys have food give and go. They could be back at any moment." Groaned one.

"Relax Kicker, they won't be back for a little while. They're busy." Ace soothed while he began distributing apples through small slots in the cell doors. Most of the men were able to drag themselves over to the fruit but a for a few Ace entered the cell and put it in their hands.

"With who?" Moaned yet another clone.

"Doesn't matter." Clarified Rex as he followed Ace's lead. "We have time, we're using it."

"I like this guy." Muttered Kicker.

"So do I." Agreed the clone Rex was handing an apple to. "I'm Range by the way."

"Nice to meet you." Responded Rex. Both clones smiled. Range was clearly the youngest clone here. He looked even younger that Fives and Echo when they worked on Rishi. Had he been a shiny in the 501, Rex would've handled him with kid gloves but he got the sense Range didn't need that.

"You doing ok?" Range asked him.

"You're the one on the cooler." Rex pointed out.

"I know but, you're new and I remember how scary it was at first."

"I'm ok." Rex answered. "What about you?"

"Freezing but alive." Replied the young clone. "I'm glad you guys left the door open. It's been days since we've seen the sun."

"Rex, we've got to go." Ace called.

"Coming!" Rex called back. "See you later." He whispered to Range.

* * *

"We need a distraction." Breaker muttered.

"How many are in there?" Asked Jesse. The group was clustered together under the windowsills of the camp's main office. They had been there for an hour now waiting for an opportunity to break in. Breaker risked another glance.

"Still two human separatists. One male one female, about 20 years old, I think they're secretaries. They look unarmed but we need them out of there to get at those computers. And 3 of ours, all shackled to the walls. They're not going to be much help until we get in there." Fives bit his lip and looked at Jesse.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Are you thinking about an ice cold beer?" Jesse replied.

"No but, what if we stage a fist fight a little ways away outside of the front door? I doubt they know which clones are on which work assignments and which are still in the barracks. They'll probably just call for droids to break us up."

"But the punishment for fighting is 2 days in the cooler!" Protested Breaker. "That's where they put the trouble makers, there's no food, and its dark and cold-"

"Not to mention what are you going to say you were doing just milling about." Echo begged. "We'll find another way, it's to risky."

"Those guys are pencil pushers." Fives pointed out. "They can't tell us apart. Whose to say we weren't grabbing supplies for field work or heading back from the mines after our shift?"

"We'd be fine." Calmed Jesse. "Who else wants in? The more the merrier!"

Kix rolled his eyes and Echo shook his head. Coric shrugged.

"Just get enough info to be worth it." He prompted.

"Will do." Promised Breaker. "Anyone else?"

"If I get to punch Fives, I'm so in" Declared Boxer. Fives did a double take.

"What did I do?" He whined.

"What haven't you done?" Sighed Denal. "I'm in, if only for the sake of punching Fives."

Breaker shook his head. "It's going to be a party in the cooler tonight."

"And the night after that" Finished Fives. He hugged Echo and whispered something to his brother. Echo nodded and whispered something back. Kix and Jesse exchanged nods. Kix looked a little scared at the thought of what was about to happen. Then again, they were all terrified every moment of every day so that was normal.

"Wait here. You'll know when to go." Jesse instructed carefully. He and the others moved up to the area in front of the main office door.

"So, how should we start?" Fives asked nervously. He didn't want to get hit with the shock collars again but there was no other option.

"Like this, idiot." Boxer tackled Fives and rolled him in front of the open door.

Jesse leapt on top of Denal. "This is for that time you turned me in for being late to live fire exercises." He snarled. Coric popped Jesse in the face.

"That was me, you moron."

Echo and Kix watched this all from a little ways away.

"Do you ever wish you got assigned to a normal legion?" Kix asked him.

"Of course not, that'd be so boring." Replied Echo. Breaker just stared at them both.

"Time to move, the seppies are trying to break up the fight." He ordered. The three men boosted themselves in through the window. The clones working in the office didn't even miss a beat.

"I'll get you guys a holo-pad with pertinent information about scheduling and dates." One said.

"Here's a list of all the camp transfers they have planned for the next 3 weeks, guards included. There are a lot surprisingly, most are to West Camp. There must've been a riot there or something because these numbers are crazy." Informed a second as he handed Echo the list.

"And these are the groups they plan to pick pocket men from next. I believe the 212 is first, the next legion wide abduction will be in 8 months and they want it to be the Wolf Pack. Although personally I think they'll just finish off the 212. I don't think there stupid enough to mess with the Wolf Pack." Finalized the last clone.

"This was easy." Exclaimed Kix.

"We're good at what we do." Said the second proudly. The shock collar around his neck seemed to be attached to a chain, which led up to a hoop on the wall. The chain was long enough so he could sit down or take a few strides in the room but other than that he wasn't going anywhere.

"What is it you do, exactly?" Asked Kix.

"Basically we're the seps permanent shinnies. We do most of the low level paper work and screw up as much of it as possible. Stuff like supply requisites, ration ordering, they even had Jumper here fill their coffee orders once." Explained the second. "I'm Beacon by the way. You both look new."

"They are." Answered Breaker.

"Well, one of you is probably going to get stuck with us in here in a few days. Whose only been interrogated once, has normalish hair and no facial tattoos?" Continued Beacon.

"That'd me." Bet Echo.

"It'll probably be you then." Theorized the third.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Promised the clone downloading information to the holo-pad.

"You almost never have to do physical work and occasionally you get better food." He had been seated on the ground, curled up against a filing cabinet with flimsi sheets and a holo pad spread around him, but was now seated at the secretary's desk typing away.

"Ignore the mess over there, I'm trying to 'accidentally' get us some actually edible food. I'm Jumper. Don't ask how I got the name-I'm not telling."

"Coffee getter." Chimed the third.

"That was one fucking time Link! One time!" Jumper protested. Link rolled his eyes.

"You guys aren't giving us enough credit. We run most of the smuggling operation too. Surprisingly, the health care here isn't great. So we run med supply requests through by the upper levels as is one of our lovely captors need them. Occasionally, if a guard or interrogator gets to brutal, we get them fired. That's the best part."

"You guys have a med-center?" Kix perked up.

"An ok one, yeah. It's nothing like what they have on the cruisers. It's just to manage basic work injuries. I've heard the one they have over at North Camp is awesome but I've never been so I can't confirm."

"What about the…" Echo tugged at the collar around his own neck nervously. Jumper smiled at him kindly.

"Not gonna lie, it sucks at first and takes some getting used to but there's this." He unhooked the chain from his collar with no trouble. "It's just here because they like to toy with us emotionally. We toy with them right back."

"Oh, I got one more!" Beacon interjected. "We're basically Ace's informants, he's useless without us."

"Hey, I do alright on my own." Laughed a familiar voice. Rex and Ace stood just inside the window. Both had bulging cloth canvas bags strung over their shoulders. Echo could see how close they had become in just hour and a half since they had set out this morning. Ace tossed each of them an apple and sat down on the other desk.

"Sorry no beer this time. You guys holding up? These guys by the way are most of the reason we know about anything. Link-the missing, Beacon-not to be confused with bacon, and Jumper- the coffee getter." Link and Beacon raised a hand at the mention of their names. Jumper just shook his head sadly.

"I could be known for so many things, but that's my legacy. You all should go. They'll be back any minute and they've been in such a fowl mood ever since Link undid the screws on their swivel chairs this morning."

Link gave them all a proud smile. "You guys may think you're cool, stealing food and all, but you have to admit you got nothing on us."

"Ok, no more stolen food for you." Ace declared.

"Kix, Echo, where are the others?" Rex asked.

"The seps weren't leaving so they staged a fight so the seps would leave and break it up." Echo explained.

"Everyone wanted to punch Fives." Continued Kix. Rex nodded like this was understandable.

"Will they be ok in the cooler for two days?" Ace asked Rex.

"They'll be fine. They have each other and clone pride." Promised Rex.

Jumper finished loading the information onto the holo-pad. "Please wreck havoc onto the seppies for us with this."

"Will do." Breaker promised.

"We should go." Rex reminded Ace. "We still have to get to the South side of the camp and it's going to get a lot harder once the mine goes up." Ace nodded.

"See you guys. He turned to Breaker, Echo, and Kix. "Wait a few minutes, then head back to the barrack. Start going through everything. We'll be back soon with food." And with the he and Rex darted out the window and onto the nearest rooftop.

Link looked at Kix and Echo. "So, what are your names?" He asked in an amicable tone.

"Kix."

"Echo."

"How'd you get 'em?" Jumper chimed in.

"My gun got knocked out of my hand during my first run through the battle simulator so I just started kicking everything. And Kicker was already taken."

"I repeated everything to my squad." Both Echo and Kix smiled sheepishly. Breaker snorted.

"At least you guys didn't break everything you every touched."

"Quick! Touch the collar! We can be home by dinner!" Link shouted.

"Alright, you've given them enough time." Jumper declared. "Good luck with whatever you guys are up to."

"Come back and see us soon I get tired of dealing with these losers." Mentioned Link. Beacon waved.

"Shit-they're coming back and they look mad! Go!" All three clones pitched themselves out the window in an attempt to exit speedily but also to look cool. They landed in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Will they be ok?" Echo whispered.

"They'll be fine. They've handled much worse." Breaker panted. "Come on. Let's take the tunnels back to my place."

"Can't you at least buy us dinner first?" Gasped Kix.

Breaker laughed. "Ace and Rex will bring food later. Come on."

* * *

Speed cackled as he placed more charges.

"This is gonna be good." Wings rolled his eyes at the younger trooper but secretly he was enjoying the kid's enthusiasm.

"Hurry up." Mixer order from where he stood watch at the entrance to the mine. There were no clones there today, probably either locked up in barracks or being worked to death in the factory.

"I'm with Mixer on this one," Burner nodded. "Give me some of the charges. I can run up to the front of the shaft and start working backwards."

Speed shifted his weight so Burner could get at the backpack of charges.

"Just place them correctly. Remember, prime and don't hit the count down. I like being in one piece." He instructed.

"What am I? A cadet?" Teased Burner.

The group moved quickly from there. Soon they all stood at the mouth of the mine.

"Speed, you can do the honors. Wait until we're behind that building though. I've made it this far in the war without being loaded with shrapnel and I've no desire to start now." Speed nodded happily.

"Will do." Within moments they all crouched behind the building.

"Do it." Grinned Wings. Speed pressed the button. The explosion that followed was nothing quite like the clones had ever seen before. Wings had insisted on planting the charges in such a way so that the mine collapsing would look like a natural occurrence so the seps wouldn't find anything should any of them get curious. It wasn't as big this way, but it was still pretty awesome.

"Now what?" Asked Burner.

"Now we run back to the barrack and try really hard not to get caught." Wings answered.

Speed cocked his head. "Race ya."

 **Yay. Shout outs to karisdaae24601, arashikageriverflower, Lux's Sister, and EJ, AutumnLeaves03. Next chapter will go up some time around Wednesday and we'll check back in with Anakin and Ahsoka. If you leave a review you get a shout out and good karma.**


	13. Chapter 13

Obi-wan paced the bridge of the _Defiance_. It had been exactly one week and a day since they had last heard from Anakin or anyone in the 501 infantry. The entire republic was worried. Obi-wan could sense his men's fear about what had happened to their comrades. Few bodies had been discovered, far to few. More than half of the 501's infantry had seemingly vanished. Obi-wan had ordered his men to rest; they were doing no good constantly worrying. He tried once more to sense Anakin's location in the force, wherever he was, he was shielded.

"Sir!" One of the officers called out, "We are receiving a message. It's encrypted. No visual or audio, just…words"

"Decrypt it." Obi-wan found himself ordering a little to hastily. "View it on main screen."

"Decrypting now, sir." The words appeared on the screen and twisted a knife into Obi-wan's heart.

"Dear Obi-wan," Someone read aloud. "We're not dead. Being held captive on unknown system. Entire infantry legion plus many more clones being held here. Please trace this signal and come help us. Proceed with caution. - Anakin. Ps. Tell Cody Rex says hi." Obi-wan could feel the entire bridge look at him.

"Can you trace the signal?" He asked no one in particular.

"Doing it now sir." Someone answered. "Tracing, tracing. We have it. A system, 5 standard days travel at light speed sir."

"Chart the course." Obi-wan ordered. He tapped his comm. "Cody, I need you on the bridge now."

"Yes sir." Came the reply. Cody appeared on the bridge a heartbeat later. Obi-wan figured the only man in the galaxy who might've slept less in the past few days than him was Cody. Somehow, he still managed to look slightly presentable. Though, his hair was ruffled and Obi-wan noticed a few marks on his armor. He and Rex had cleaned their armor together every night. Sometimes he and Anakin could hear laughter and snickers coming from their quarters during that nightly ritual. It was usually the only time either man laughed.

"News sir?" Cody asked.

"Yes, we got a transmission from Anakin and traced it. Rex said to tell you hello." Cody's face lit up with these last few words. Obi-wan could practically feel relief washing over the man.

"Where are they sir?"

"A small system. There's no record of it ever being inhabited before. I don't think it even has a name." _Perfect for hiding nameless soldiers._ Thought Cody.

"Chart a course." Obi-wan ordered. "Contact the council." He added, almost as an afterthought.

"Yes sir." Replied the navigations officer. Obi-wan pressed a few buttons on the command table and the holographic images of Mace, Yoda, and Plo appeared.

"Obi-wan, news you have?" Yoda asked.

"Yes master. I received a message from Anakin. We traced it to a small system. I'm going after them."

Mace frowned. "I'm not sure that's the best idea. What did the message say?"

Obi-wan glanced at Cody who quickly nodded. He tapped out a few commands on a data pad and looked back to Obi-wan.

"It was just forwarded to you." Explained Obi-wan. Plo read the message and looked back to the group.

"We'll meet you there."

Mace's frown furthered. "The fact the Skywalker advised us to proceed with caution worries me."

"That's why Master Plo will be joining us." Pointed out Obi-wan. Plo nodded. Yoda raised his eyebrows.

"Know very little do we. Sense, I cannot, the force in this place. Dark and full of fear it is."

"I understand that Master, but Anakin needs us." He turned to Plo. "I'll have the coordinates forwarded to you." Plo gave a small nod.

"I am closer than you are; I will have some men provide us with some reconnaissance. It should assist with our plan of attack." Obi-wan nodded.

"We're getting underway. I will see you in a few days."

"May the force be with you."

"May the force be with us all."

* * *

Ahsoka screamed and writhed on the table.

"Hang in there snips." Anakin choked. He sent her an encouraging look. Seeing her in this much pain was killing him. In the beginning she had cursed and joked with Anakin every time either one of them had been in pain. But that was hours ago, now, she was just trying not to cry. Not that he was doing any better; he was just better at hiding it.

"We're nailing this aren't we?" He tried to get her to smile.

"No you're both failures to everything you represent." Corrected Ray. He looked as if he had been waiting to tell them that.

"Seems a little harsh. Don't you think, Ray?" Taz smiled. He twirled another syringe around his fingers like a baton.

"Stop screaming so loudly! It gives me a headache." Ordered Jif. Ahsoka stopped her cries just long enough to meet Anakin's eyes. _One, two, three_ She mouthed. Padawan and master shrieked loud enough to wake the dead.

Cià rubbed her forehead and groaned. She nodded to Taz. He stopped twirling the syringe and attached a needle before plunging into Ahsoka's arm. Ray shook his head and sent Jif a concerned look.

"Well I hope you both realize how damn pointless that was." Cià muttered.

"Swear jar!" Ahsoka enforced, but her speech was slightly slurred. Something was wrong. Taz gave Anakin a knowing smile. _Say goodnight._ He mouthed.

"Good job snips." Anakin praised her, trying to push down his worry. "Very proud of you."

"Thanks master." Ahsoka murmured. Her heavy eyes started to close. "Proud…of..you…too."

"No! Ahsoka! Keep your eyes open! Come on, you're doing so well. Don't go to sleep! Stay awake!"

"Go to sleep little one." Cià hummed. "You're tired. Give us a little bit alone with your master." Ahsoka looked like she wanted to protest, but whatever drug Taz had put in her was winning out. She sent a glance full of fear towards Anakin.

"Fight it." He whispered to her.

"Count backwards from 10." Cia breathed softly. "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Ahsoka's eyes shut.

"Leave us." Directed Cià. "Taz, stay with me." Ray looked slightly upset at being ordered from the room but Jif seemed downright delighted.

Taz looked hard at Cià. "We can't kill him yet. We already set the date for his execution."

"Oh that's not good." Muttered Anakin.

"No, it's really fun." Cià protested. "We get all the clones in the courtyard where we do lineup every morning-your guys haven't been to that yet but we're starting to break them so they can start tomorrow morning- then we kill you. Usually we shoot jedi. I'm not sure if we're going to kill the girl with you yet. We might hang on to her a little while longer."

"That does not sound fun."

"There's even a party afterwards. All the guards come and we drink and eat. And everyone gets to sleep in the next day because we're hung over." Taz continued. Anakin's stomach grumbled.

"So when is my execution?"

"In a week and a half or so. Don't worry, we still have plenty of time left together."

"Great…" Anytime now Obi-wan, anytime.

* * *

Echo bit into another cookie.

"So that's what parents are for. They send you baked goods." He concluded.

"All this time we've been wondering." Kix laughed. All groups had returned safe from their various sabotage missions and now lay scattered across the floor and beds of the barrack Ace shared with the others. Ace and Rex had brought back a myriad of goodies from the guards private stocks.

"I feel bad that we have guys in the cooler and we're chowing down on cookies." Breaker admitted.

"Don't." Persuaded Ace. "Bolt and his men aren't be happy unless they in some sort of trouble."

"And Jesse, Boxer, Coric, and Denal got to punch Fives." Rex added.

Wings cracked a smile. "What did Fives get?" He teased.

"Hopefully a lesson in humility but don't hold your breath. Many have tried, none have succeeded." Echo answered.

Ace picked up the data pad Jumper had given Breaker earlier.

"Alright, time to start getting work done." He began browsing through the pad with a worried look on his face. "There are too many transfers to West Camp. That's not normal."

"Beacon said there might've been a riot or something." Kix pointed out.

"That's not good." Ace muttered.

"Why?" Speed grinned. "If someone else is fighting back, we should help them."

"Because for every guard killed they kill one us. Not quickly with guns, slowly. We can hear them screaming for days after." Wings whispered. Rex could see from the look in his eyes that he was trapped in the past, hearing a brother die over and over again. Breaker gently touched his arm and Wings shuddered.

"Had there been a big riot they would've gotten men by now." Ace soothed. "Anything could've happened. Beacon, Jumper, and Link will tell us when they hear something."

"When is the next transfer?" Rex asked. His middle finger tapped his right leg the way it always did when he was nervous.

"1 day. This one looks random, so they'll get pulled out of lineup. Looks like no one we know well is on it." He tossed the pad to Rex. "They use trooper designations with a POW- prefix instead of CT. Check for your boys."

"How do they know out designations?" Rex sighed as he leafed through the pad.

"As far as we know, they have a list of every infantry trooper in what ever group they're going for. They then compare those with our ID's and put a chip with the number in our wrists when we get captured. The chips transmit vitals and probably location. I know it seems crazy but it's the best explanation we have."

"Makes sense." Agreed Rex.

"So that's how they knew we were faking." Echo mused. "I remember seeing them do something to Jesse's wrist just before they realized he was still awake."

"Exactly, the chip may have other functions that we don't know about." Ace explained.

"Burner, you're on here, Boxer, Denal, and Mixer and Coric are all on here." Rex admitted. He looked up and met his brothers' looks.

"Let me see that! Maybe you got a number wrong!" Kix suggested desperately. He took the pad from Rex's hands and scrolled through before collapsing with his head in his hands. "He's right." Mixer and Speed looked at each other.

"We've never been separated before." Speed whispered. "Except for the cages but that was a few hours. This is…"

"We've got a day left." Breathed Mixer.

"You'll see each other again." Ace attempted to calm them. "There's always shuffling and the other camps are a lot better than this."

"North Camp has an amazing med center, West camp has really nice sunsets, and I've heard the food at South Camp is decent, East Camp has really lax rules…" Wings put in.

"Not to mention that there's this really pretty guard who's nice." Added Breaker.

"Have you been?" Asked Mixer.

"I've been to East and West Camp, Wings has been to West Camp. Ace has been stuck here this entire time."

"Actually they dragged me just outside the fence and beat me up 3 years ago remember? So I haven't been in here the whole time."

"Why'd they drag you out to beat you up?" Echo muttered. He had curled up into a ball and was leaning against a bedpost.

"Apparently, they aren't allowed to over do it with the abuse on the camp grounds. I got caught smuggling meds and the seps thought I was working for someone. I was, technically, but I wasn't about to tell them that."

Rex's ears perked up. "So, you haven't always been the ringleader?"

"No, before me it was a guy named Trip. He was sent to North Camp though. He's pretty much in charge up there now. Generally that's where the medics all end up. Probably why they have the best med center."

"So we shouldn't panic?" Burner concluded.

"No, the scariest part is- ok, granted, the whole thing is scary-do you want us to just walk you through it?"

"Yes." Hissed Mixer.

"Ok so, you'll get pulled out in morning line up. They'll either drag you or let you walk depending on how energetic they're feeling, to a really dark building. Then you get shoved down a flight of stairs. Down those stairs is where they load you onto the train. Sometimes you get tied up other times they just leave you loose which is nice because then you and the others can cuddle." Wings began.

"If you get tied up usually you end up playing some name game like before a mission with a new group." Breaker added. "Or you can just talk."

"Once you get there, you get strip searched. They typically have you put your body glove back on and then you have to wear this ugly orange jump suit over it. When they send you back here you get your armor back. Which is nice but it's not your armor-" Wings continued.

"Just get deep with it. This armor protected one of your brothers and now it protects you, your armor will probably protect another brother soon." Breaker stressed.

"We're captured you weirdo, if anything our armor's all cursed and if the paints all messed up then you have to try to fix it. And what if you end up in a rival squads color? And what's even the point of putting us back in armor? It makes no sense!" Wings vented.

"This is one of his pet peeves." Explained Ace to Rex quietly. "He likes to analyze the seps plays. He gets flustered if he can't figure out their goal."

"I know the type." Agreed Rex in the same quiet voice, thinking back to Ahsoka and he constant need to understand everything. He hoped she was ok. She was a good kid, she didn't deserve to die out here. None of them did.

"Well I'm sorry I'm trying to make some sense out of everything."

"Whatever, I'm disowning you. That's about it as far as a transfer goes. Someone will help you guys from there on out. You won't get interrogated but you will get worked a lot harder. Resistance out there is a lot more fun then it is here though. Lots more food stealing. Just more stealing in general. It's just how they have fun and keep themselves sharp."

"Ok, we can do this." Breathed Mixed.

"Yes, yes, you can." Smiled Wings right back.

 **Shout outs to Ryuk-eats-apples, Guest, jumper,arashikageriverflower, BuruPlays2, elfqueen13, Tsani, Lux's Sister. Sorry it took so long to get up. My cross country coach is crazy. The ducks are good. Shout outs and good karma to those who review.**


	14. Chapter 14

Fives closed his eyes and tried to sleep. What was happening to him? He used to be able to fall asleep wherever and whenever he could shut his eyes, gunships, hangers, Echo's left shoulder…all had become Fives designated nap spots. Now here he was struggling to even shut his eyes. It was probably the lack of noise. The section of the cooler they had been shoved into contained only him, Boxer, Jesse, and Coric. The older and wiser troopers seemed to be trying to sleep or at lest pretend to sleep. Jesse rapped on the dirty plastic that separated him and Fives.

"Want to gossip about Echo and Kix or is that just for when we're on late night watch?" Jesse teased.

"Nah. Echo's made it a record amount of time without being to much of a nerd and I don't want to jinx him breaking the streak."

"Maybe he'll rub off on Kix. Ya never know." Jesse sighed wistfully.

"Maybe General Kenobi will show up and save us all." Fives muttered.

"No he's probably delighted that General Skywalker's out of his hair." Jesse suggested.

"And Commander Tano, Don't forget Commander Tano."

"Wonder how they're holding up…"

"Are you kidding? They've probably already broken out."

"Or they're stuck here with us." Jesse grinned evilly.

"I can think of some worse fates." Fives giggled.

"I can't." Jesse muttered. "I hate being stuck. There's a reason I'm not a pilot."

"Speaking of pilots, those lucky nerfhearders didn't get captured did they?" Fives realized.

"Yet another reason to hate them."

Fives shuddered from the cold. "Do they actually have the air conditioning running in here? We can't get them to run the AC in the Couresaunt barracks in 100 degree heat but the seps seem to have no trouble keeping the place cool."

"Where was this on Genosis?"

"You hear that you seppie kriffs? Curse you for not running the air on Genosis and giving everyone sunburns!" Jesse laughed.

"Though Coric looked awesome with a pink face. Can we agree on that?" Fives whispered with the sparkle in his eyes Jesse had thought almost gone out.

Coric glanced up from staring at his knees. "I heard my name."

"Nothing." Both Fives and Kix chorused in perfect sync.

"See Fives this is why everyone wanted to punch you."

"No everyone wanted to punch me because I'm the best looking." Fives defended.

"No everyone wants to punch you because you can be an airhead." Denal chimed in.

"Yeah but I'm a handsome airhead." Responded Fives.

"I can't deal with him when he gets like this." Jesse faked an exasperated sigh. "I just can't deal."

"I say we send him back to Kamino. They specialize in knocking down our sense of self-esteem." Coric suggested.

"All in agreement say aye!" Jesse shouted playfully.

"Aye." Chorused the brothers.

"Nay, you should all vote nay on this." Fives protested. "Oh well, I'll think of you all as I go to sleep in a kriffing tube. But its a climate controlled tube so who's laughing now?"

"Still us. Our food's better." Jesse reminded him.

"Eff you. At least on Kamino I can, I can….hang on something will come to me..."

"Nothings coming bro. Nothings coming."

Fives managed a small smile as he leaned his head against the cold back wall. "Ah well."

"What time do you think it is?" Coric pondered.

"Late afternoon. Get comfortable we're here for three days." Boxer muttered as he leaned back. "Three long days."

"Think we'll starve to death?" Coric asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nah. They've gotten almost no information out of us. They'll want something before we go." Jesse soothed. "We'll be ok."

"Almost! Brother I've kept my lips sealed this whole time! " Fives exclaimed.

"And you think I haven't?" Retorted Jesse. "We didn't all have Commander Tano in there with us though. We didn't all get the chance to play the 'get of interrogation free card' How are you going to hold up when it comes down to just you and them, huh? "

"Careful with what you imply there Jesse." Fives growled.

"Why would you think I were directing that statement at you? Did the two of you stretch what really happened in there? Just wanted to keep up the facade we were all still ok?" Jesse spat back.

"Of course not, you know that. What I'm worried about is you getting on the defensive for nothing. Have you spilled anything?" Fives sneered.

"OI!" Boxer interfered. "This is what they want guys. They want us at each other's throats and they want us cold, hungry, tired, and disoriented. There's not much we can do about the cold and hungry part we can sleep and keep our heads. Now say sorry and move on."

"Sorry I implied you were snitch." Jesse grunted.

"Sorry I shouted." Fives muttered.

A wicked grin crossed Boxer's face, "Now kiss."

"Do you think we can kill him without Rex knowing?" Fives sighed.

"No, that's why we have role call. Clearly we are not the first to require the removal of a brother." Jesse groaned. Coric sent a worried look towards Denal. It was going to be a long three days.

"Well we've efficiently killed 10 minutes." Coric declared. "Who's up for wasting another 15 with rants about GAR procedures that prevent us from murdering each other?"

"Aye"

* * *

Cody rolled over in his bunk for the hundredth time. The officers quarters were to quiet without Rex's gentle breathing across from him. It was even to quiet without his comm buzzing with Rex's latest rants about the antics of the 501 that Cody would relay to General Kenobi the next morning t breakfast. It was a good system, Rex got someone to rant to, Cody got white noise to help him sleep, and the entire 212 got a laugh and a "thank god we only occasional partner with them." But the system fell apart with no Rex comming Cody.

Cody flipped his pillow. Wherever Rex was he probably didn't have a pillow right now. He was probably strapped down to a cold metal table with tubes running out of him while he tried to avoid giving the seppies any info. Of course it was also plausible Rex was somewhere safe and warm with no worries. But Cody severely doubted that Separatist interrogation tactics had changed since the duo had last experienced separatist hospitality. A knock sounded at the door.

"Come in." Cody called. In strode Waxer and Boil with the cocky trademark smugness that came from being the best and knowing it.

"We brought booze." Boil began.

"It's from our secret emergency stash." Waxer explained.

"But if having your best friend being held hostage doesn't qualify as an emergency I don't know what does." Boil finished.

Cody gave a sad laugh. "Normally I'd give you each a reprimand but these are special circumstances. If General Kenobi shows up, just say its tea."

"Oh yeah that'll fool'em. Not like he's a flipping expert on tea or anything." Boil muttered.

"Hey it's worked before." Waxer chimed in

"Oh god I don't want to know this story." Boil groaned.

"We probably shouldn't." Cody paused. "We need to be sharp for the coming battle. We can celebrate afterwards with Rex and his men."

"Yes," agreed Boil. "But we all know the 501 and their penchant for stealing our booze."

"Worst comes to worst we find a medic and beg some sober pills off him." Waxer added.

"We should be planning an attack. Not getting drunk." Cody enforced. "Let's pull Wolffe up, see who he's sending on recon. See if there's anything we can do to help. General Kenobi's probably going through old archive data trying to find something useful on the planet. That planet didn't just appear, someone somewhere knows something about it and odds are the information ended up in the archives. Send a man to help him. Preferably someone who is good with that sort of thing. You know the drill."

"Were those orders?" Boil asked. "Because I'm not doing those if they weren't orders. These bottles have been beckoning me all mission."

"As of right now they are friendly suggestions, but they can quickly become something more if they are not obeyed in the next 5, 4, 3,"

"Damn it, told you Waxer. Never try to do something nice for your CO." Boil laughed.

"2, 2¾, 2½" Cody continued with a smile.

"Damn it come on Boil." Waxer laughed as he was pulled out the compartment by his brother.

"We'll be back in a few minutes sir. Don't die."

"Thank you Waxer I'll try not to." Cody threw himself down onto a chair. _Hang in there Rex old boy, we're coming._

* * *

Contrary to Cody's fears Rex was actually doing quite well. It was Anakin they all should be worried about.

"You know we're going to kill in publically in a few days." Taz commented.

"You say it so nonchalantly, has our time together meant nothing to you? What do you mean by publically?"

"We'll gather up all our clone prisoners here and we'll broadcast to everyone else. 10 credits your men cheer."

"Considering I'm the one who wakes them up at 4am and tells them its go time, yes, yes they will." Anakin glanced at Ahsoka's still form. Her stomach was rising and falling in even motions, so she wasn't dead. Just sleeping, only the seps knew for how long. Cià followed his line of vision with a sense of hatred in her eyes. She nodded at Ray and Jif and held up three fingers. Jif's eyes widened, "Ma'am, she's just a kid. Electroshocks of that magnitude would cause permanent brain damage or could potentially kill her. We don't have everything we need yet."

"So?" Cià replied. "We can get it from the clones. We're close on that group in the cooler. Infighting is one of the signs. One of the many. We need a faster way to break the rest of them and this is it."

"Cià," Taz murmered. "She's just a kid. Albeit an angry and unmannered child but she's only doing as she's told. She's young and impressionable, we can't maim her for life."

"Her life is growing drastically shorter by the minute."

"Don't touch her!" Anakin shouted as he thrashed wildly. "I swear if you touch her again I will kill you myself."

"So now you care." Cià smiled sickly.

"Cià," Taz murmered. "We're better than that." He whispered more words into her ear as he squeezed her hand. She step back. And was Anakin's mind playing tricks on him or did she blink a tear out of her eye.

"She might be useful someday." Prompted Taz. "That was our mistake on the first padawan. He knew far more that he let on. What if she does too?"

"Fine" scoffed Cià. "But I want her dosed with water first. What's the point if she's not awake." Taz smiled and gave a go ahead nod to Ray and Jif. Ray unfastened the restraints around Ahsoka before Jif gently scooped her up. Anakin continued to thrash and shout how they were all dead men walking.

"That's the third time I've heard that this afternoon!" Grinned Cia. "Now where were we? Ahh, yes."

"Jif take her next door and begin. Let's see how master reacts to padawan's screams.

 **Hehe, surprise I'm not dead? I know I've been gone forever and I'm sorry. Cross country practice consumed my after school, meets and invitationals consumed my weekends. I'll try to update on Wednesday but break training schedule comes out tomorrow and I have a meet that I need to get ready for. So we'll see how this goes. Good karma and shout outs to those who review. Shout outs to everyone who reviewed in my** **absence ( I love you all and i hope your days are magnificent)**


	15. Mind Games

Obi-wan was pacing the deck of the Defiance's hanger now. His higher-ranking infantry and airmen were scattered around him. Normally they would use this time to base together a plan and then a backup plan for when Anakin went completely rouge taking the 501 with him. However, normally they knew something about the target. Less than a few hours ago Obi-wan had contacted the temple and asked that all the present padawans be excused from lessons in order to better scour the archives for information. Much to Mace's chagrin this was the third time Anakin had ever prevented all the padawans from being involved in lessons. Getting himself captured was added to the list along with a stink bomb in the vents and convincing all the padawans to fake an illness. In fact, Obi-wan wouldn't been surprised to find that this had been Anakin's plan all along. It was the type of thing he'd do.

"Sir, incoming transmission." Called a young officer. Barriss Offee appeared. There were dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn't sleep for a while, but she carried herself as she always did: with an unshakable confidence in a greater meaning and the regality of a senator.

"Master Kenobi," She began. "The other padawans and I have completed our search of the archives. We believe we may have found something of use. We found a reference to the system you described to us in an old report of a mission. The reason earlier searches proved unsuccessful was this report goes back more than 50 years. I'm afraid it's not much but we can now tell you with certainty the climate and terrain of the planet. I've taken the liberty of having the information forwarded to both you and Master Plo."

"Excellent Barriss, thank you."

"If I may Master Kenobi, I would advise utmost caution when planning according to the terrain. We do not know how erosion and time may have affected it."

"Understood Barriss, thank you."

"It was a pleasure Master Kenobi, please bring Ahsoka back to us safely."

"I'll do my best Barriss." Barriss's form flickered twice before disappearing. Obi-wan turned towards Cody.

"What have we got? Anything should help Plo's men on recon." Obi-wan thought aloud. Cody sorted through the data pad with focused eyes.

"Ok, we know the system is small. Climate seems to vary depending on location; Poles are cold with the meridian being mild. Most of the planet is covered in dense forests, also the planet is very rich in iron ores."

"Based on that information we can construct a preliminary holo." Observed someone Obi-wan didn't recognize.

"Duke, what's even the point? The Wolf Pack can construct a holo themselves. We're going in to quickly. How do we know this isn't a trap?" Another trooper argued.

"The point, Dimmer, is that while Wolffe certainly could have some men putting together a holo but there also remains the fact that they're preparing for planetary wide recon and they all have much more important things to focus on. Besides I think we can all agree we are better at putting together holo's than anyone in the Pack." Cody declared.

"Point taken, Duke and I can assemble the holo. Everyone else break for coffee." Dimmer conceded. Cody smiled. The men raced down to the mess hall like the hopeless caffeine addicts they all were. Obi-wan and Cody went more slowly.

"Nice response back there." Obi-wan complimented.

"Thank you sir, but how do we know it really isn't a trap? I avoided answering that part on purpose."

"We don't. If it is indeed a trap we'll save who we can and then just try to get out alive. Try some improvisation, it might be fun. "

"It might." Cody admitted pessimistically.

"Have some faith Cody, believe it will all work out."

"Truth be told sir, I'd rather have Rex than faith."

"As I with Anakin."

"Guys, preliminary holo are all ready!" Dimmer called from the hanger. "Everybody in now."

"Let's get Rex and Anakin back." Obi-wan said with a sly smile.

"Wolffe and Plo said thanks for the holo." Duke announced as soon as the group had gathered. "Scouting parties are going out in 75 minutes. We'll know more in a few hours."

"So many are going to die on that." Breathed Waxer. "Planetary wide recon's got to be the most dangerous mission there is."

"Yeah, but Wolffe will make sure experienced men who know what they're doing get sent. They'll be fine." Boil whispered back.

"No he won't he'll send the annoying shinies."

"Waxer, Boil, care to share what you to are whispering about back there?" Obi-wan called out from the front of the room. Cody smirked. Waxer and Boil gave each other a 'what do we do now' look. Thankfully being scouts they were both quick thinkers.

"General, have you done something new with your hair recently. It looks bomb." Waxer improvised with a grin.

"We'll let it go this time." Decided Obi-wan with a ghost of a smile on his face. The other men snickered. Cody rolled his eyes before coming to the conclusion that Waxer and Boil had far too much free time.

"Alright, everyone go sleep or do relaxing work. There's no point in getting hyped up for a battle now. We still have several hours to a full day ahead of us. Radio the med bay and tell them they're in crunch time."

"Are we in crunch time?" Called out Duke. "Or just the medics."

"You're in 'feeling mildly rushed time', this day will be won by whoever has lain the best foundation before proceeding. The question is us or is it the separatist forces?"

"It'll be us sir, I'll notify the med bay and send some shinies to help out."

"Good. I'll call you all back when the recon reports are back."

* * *

"So what happens tomorrow besides losing half my men?" Rex whispered.

"We all get pulled of our jobs to clear the mine. Pretty much everybody will be there. Mine clearings not that bad. Your back'll ache tomorrow night though. But anything is better than the seps getting that metal."

"Social event of the season?" Rex joked to Ace.

"Oh yeah. Hope you dry-cleaned your tuxedo brother. All ranking officers, everybody who's anybody to the guards will be there."

"Including guards?"

"Outside of the mine shaft. They won't go in. To much dust in the air. If we're gonna talk of rebellion it's the best time."

"Dang it, I left my tux in my other crusier."

"Wow Rex, now we gotta put the whole plan off."

"There's a plan?"

"There's always a plan."

"Great, what's the play?"

"The play is recent efforts have revived everyone who previously had given up and we need to strike while the iron is hot. And I just don't like the seps, ya know? We're hosting a brainstorming meeting in an hour with all the other high rankers. Stealing food is fun, but we need to hit them with the heavy artillery. Will you come? I know you want to be with your men tonight but I promise you'll see them again. Transfers always come this way again."

"Alright. But no guarantees they don't throw a party." Rex answered. Ace laughed.

"Oh wait you're serious? Have they done that before?" He asked in bewilderment.

"Yeah, that was a long mission. Ask Echo and Fives, it was all their fault."

"Aren't all missions long?"

"Good point, when's the meeting?"

"In an hour or so. Gotta get the kids to bed first. I'll come by and pick you up in the tunnels first. It's on the way."

"Oh there's no way this lot is getting a healthy amount of sleep tonight. Probably going to be up all night reminiscing about old times."

"Try to get them to go to sleep. They're going to need it. It's going to be a long day tomorrow. For everyone, including the seps. It's the beginning of their end."

"Oh, exciting."

"Wings, Breaker, Shockwave time to go kiddos. The seps probably just found all the fruits of this morning's labor and they'll be doing a role call."

"Ace you're a month older than us, we've been over this." Breaker sighed as he stood up. Wings hugged Mixer and whispered something to him. Mixer gave him a timid nod back. Shockwave shook his head and held up two fingers.

"And you're only two weeks older than Shockwave." Breaker added.

"Ah yes but that is a month and two weeks of experience and wisdom that you all lack. I have that experience and wisdom."

"And the attitude." Coughed Breaker.

"What?"

"Nothing." Added Breaker. "Just clearing my throat. It gets stuffy in these barracks sometimes." Ace smirked. Wings rolled his eyes. Breaker just gave Shockwave a look similar to the one Fives gave Echo while the two plotted a candy raid. It was clear this was an often had discussion.

"We really should go before we get to tempted to turn you into the seppies." Wings reminded everyone. "Tunnels or dusty boulevard?"

"Tunnels. There'll be enough dust tomorrow morning." Breaker voted.

"Deal. See you guys in the morning. Try not to stress too much. It'll all be ok. " Wings comforted before he dropped down into the tunnels. Shockwave gave them all a wave. Breaker attempted to walk backwards before dropping into the tunnel thus creating a 'cool' look, but unfortunately he tripped and fell down the passage headfirst.

"I wish I could say that was the first time that had happened." Ace shook his head sadly. "Rex, I'll see you in an hour or so. Guys, I'll see you in the morning. Wings is right, they'll send you back our way soon and if they don't I'll get Jumper, Link, and Beacon to pull some strings."

"See you then. " Rex waved.

"Bye."

"See ya in the morning." Not only did Ace attempt to execute the backward walk and drop he was able to do it successfully.

" _So_ where are you guys going in an hour?" Echo said with a suggestive grin on his face.

"Sabotage planning meeting. You all need to go to bed now."

"Awww. Five more minutes?" Mixer pleaded.

"What? Mixer no, you guys know how important it is to get a good night's sleep before a fight."

"We're fighting tomorrow?" Burner asked with a hopeful look.

"Yes, but it's a mental fight. Not a physical fight. And those are the hardest ones."

"I don't like anything that has to do with thinking." Commented Boxer.

"Coric and Denal don't even know." Mixer muttered.

"So you'll tell them tomorrow. When you see them. Now you all need to go to bed. The lights'll go out in a minute and we all know how difficult it is to get into a bunk bed in the dark."

"Specially when your drunk." Boxer snickered.

"Bed now." Sighed Rex. Just as Rex predicted the lights went out. "I told you all this would happen."

"Fine." Grumbled a voice in the dark.

No sooner had Rex closed his eyes than Ace woke him up with a penlight.

"Rex. Come on, we gotta go. The new guy and the ringleader can't be late."

"Coming. Am I seriously still the new guy?"

"No, It's my nickname for you."

"Absolutely not." Rex protested as they dropped into the tunnel.

"Yes." Pushed Ace. "Would you rather blondie?"

"Nice, real original name."

"Yeah, not my best one. Oh we're here. Welcome to empty barrack number 12, the official spot where most of our rebellious plans have been concocted."

"Most?"

"I do my best work while Taz has a knife in my face. Great motivation." Rex and Ace scaled the ladder into the empty barrack. Jumper and Kicker both stood there along with an unfamiliar clone.

"Rex, Ace, good to see the both of you." Jumper said with a warm smile.

"Glad you're not dead." Said Kicker.

"Thought you were stuck in the cooler." Ace admitted. "Don't tell me you broke out?"

"No, they let some of us go. Don't tell Wings. He'll agonize over it forever. Oh, Rex, I saw your guys. They're doing well."

"I'm impressed they've all made it this long without killing each other." Commented Rex.

"Beauty of individual cells." Laughed Kicker. "Who else are we waiting on?"

"Lash got transferred to South Camp this morning." Jumper Explained. "So we probably shouldn't be expecting him, but where's Zing?"

"Present but not all here." A new voice called out. Zing climbed out of the passageway. "Oh hello, my name's Zing."

"Rex." Rex nodded back.

"Alright, so does anyone have any ideas as to what we can do to make seppie life hell?" Jumper asked. "Remember there are no bad ideas."

"I still say we break into their quarters and just vandalize." Zing recommended.

"But what's the point? Ok so they lose their clean laundry. It's not zazzy enough." Jumper commented.

"We've done spray paint, we've blown up the mine twice now. What else can we do? Sort of an actual rebellion attempt we might be out of ideas here guys." Kicker worried.

"How do you guys sabotage the bombs?" Rex asked, a base of an idea forming in his head. All eyes turned to Kicker.

"We pull the fuses whenever we can, it's not much but if you've got more I'm all ears."

"Do any of the bombs have a timer system?"

"I see where you're going with this." Realized Ace.

"None," Answered Kicker "But it's like flicking a light switch. We can do that. I'm starting to get where you're coming from."

"Rig the bombs to blow when they're being transported. Can you cover your tracks so they don't know what went wrong?"

"We can try. I got a good feeling about this Rex."

"Thanks." Rex stood up a little straighter.

"Anyone got anything else? Because other wise I have a full day of being chained to a desk tomorrow."

"I'm apologizing in advance for this, but that sounds captivating." Zing said with an ear-to-ear grin.

"Good-bye all. Sleep tight. Zing, you are dead to me." Jumper leapt down into the passage in one smooth move.

"I'd better go too. One of my men is getting transferred tomorrow and I'm worried he'll do something stupid." Kicker explained.

"We'd better go too." Ace said to Rex. "You lead on the way back. See you Zing."

"Bye Zing."

Rex and Ace worked their way back through the tunnels quickly.

"I'll find you in the morning. Get read for the roughest day of your life."

"What worse than hell week?"

"Yeah much worse. I can't describe the feeling."

"Don't worry. I've been doing this along a long time."

"See you in the morning"

"See you then."

* * *

Wolffe paced the deck and tried to keep looking calm. Planetary wide scouting missions were usually doomed to fail from the start. He had spilt the scouts up into two man teams, pairing a more experienced scout with a younger one. Approximately 30 seconds ago Plo had given the go for the scout teams. They were shielded, the teams were off, and all that was left to do was wait.

 **And wait everyone shall. Shout outs to GettingTraught, MajorCartooniac, Anonymous, Guest, and jumper. My o2-deprived brain inspired this chapter during practice today. Blame my coach. Other than that, between the meet and training and Christmas the next update will probably be Saturday. Reviewers get shout outs.**


	16. Sort of 16

Chapter 16 (Sweet 16!)

"What's our search parameter again?" Sinker asked as he bit his lip. "Heat sensor equipment is heavy and I do not want to haul it any farther than necessary."

"Like 2 clicks by 2 clicks, its practically nothing. Almost like Wolffe doesn't trust us." Boost replied.

"Wonder what we did to have that coming. Do you think he found out about the barrel incident?"

"How could he? We bribed Echo, Fives wouldn't snitch, unless…ya think General Plo told him?"

"Naw, probably just because we're normal infantry and he figured we might not blow anything up or kill anyone."

"Hold up, I got something on the sensor. What the kriff this thing is huge… I count at least 600 heat sigs."

"That's not possible all I see is brush."

"We need to get higher. This place is uninhabited right? So there's no reason for a heat sig that big."

"Stop and think for a minute. There aren't 600 men in the 501st infantry. There are 300 on a good day. They were involved in extensive battle before that we know off, we should not have that high of a body count."

"We need to check in. Captain Rex is a pretty meticulous record keeper. Think we can have someone hack their files and get their casualty counts?"

"If we can hack their com system to blare rock music for 2 hours we can do anything to their computers."

"When we propose this idea to the generals no mentioning that. Far as they know it was someone in the Senatorial Guard. I feel no need to correct that assumption."

"I'll check in with Commander Wolffe. You climb a tree or something. See what you can see or maybe shoot a rabbit for dinner. Decide on the way up." Boost ordered.

"Who put you in charge?" Comet countered with a friendly tease. He handed Boost his blaster and began to scale a rather large and leafy tree with a surprising lack of grace.

"Wolffe. Focus on climbing."

"Fine. Mr. Kama pants"

"Commander Wolffe. This is Boost reporting. We are scouting the woods as ordered even through we are infantry and have no scout training. We have come across roughly 600 heat sigs at the following coordinates. Requesting permission to have someone hack the 501st and get their casualty reports. Maybe cause some other mischief. We need to know realistically how many men we're looking for."

"Acknowledged." Wolffe grumbled. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks sir. Anything else?"

"Two teams have missed their scheduled check-ins. Finish up at your coordinates then we're sending you two to look into one of the locations."

"Can you at least buy us dinner first?"

"Comet."

"OK, sir, bye sir." Comet added quickly. "Comet out."

"Commander Wolffe wants us to check out some other coordinates after we finish here." He called up to Boost.

"Is he buying us dinner?" Boost shouted back down.

"Nope, did you shoot a rabbit?" Comet took a step back in anticipation of Boost tumbling out of the tree. Unsurprisingly, Boost was scrambling down the trunk when he slipped and landed flat on his back.

"Do I look like I shot a rabbit?"

"Point. Did you see anything?"

"What appears to be a small town. 'Bout a click North."

"No way that's a town. Guess we'd better call Wolffe back. He's not gonna like that."

"Commander Wolffe. We're back. I made Boost climb a tree to see if he could see where the heat sigs were coming from and he says he saw what appears to be a small town. I think that that is not a town but is really where our brothers are being held captive."

"There are to many heat sigs for it to be just them. There are no reports of any semblance of life here in over 30 years. Something's going on. I'll radio Cody. See what the 212th thinks. Go check those other coordinates. Do not go near the heat sigs. Get other readings."

"Sir. Yes. Sir." Both man snapped and began walking south towards their new coordinates.

"Remember those rumors about a deserter colony that flew around the barracks a few months ago? What if this is a part of that?"

"Something tells me that its not. Those were just rumors."

"General Plo would say that all rumors have a seed of truth in them. "

"Yeah but there's no way that enough of us would even desert to man a ship much less a colony. Why would some teams fail to report in if it were deserters? This is something much more sinister. "

"What are you, A Jedi all of a sudden?"

"Yep, you missed the memo."

"I'm glad it's the 501st. We can pay them back for saving us from the Malevolence."

"I wish it weren't anyone. But they're survivors. With a general like that you have to have a spunk that gets you through this type of situations. "

"I'm sure they'll be happy to hear that."

"What? It's true. You know it is."

"Yes but we can't tell them that. You know how they get defensive."

"Hopefully there will be someone to get defensive left."

"Commander Tano and her men are tough. Captain Rex will keep her alive and she won't let anyone give up. They'll hang in there."

"What about General Skywalker?"

"Didn't you hear General Kenobi? He's a master a getting caught."

"Kriff. We're at the coordinates. There was a fight here. Look, there are marks from an electro-net. Blaster marks on one of those trees."

"But-no bodies. Minimal blood. They might still be alive."

"Odds are in favor of it. We have to radio Wolffe again. Then we need to get off this planet, before whatever got them gets us."

"Might be to late for that brother. Commando droids incoming. 4 of them lead by a human. Run. Quietly. They don't know we're here."

Many different people had accused Comet and Booster of being many things. Not a singe person had ever accused them of being quiet or breaking any GAR records for speed. None of this mattered now though because there in those crucial moments of sprinting through the forest in silence both Comet and Boost ran like their lives depended on it.

"I think we lost them. Radio Wolffe. I'll get the ship ready to go."

* * *

"Sir, Wolffe just radio'd. He's got reports in from all his team except two. Comet and Boost were sent to investigate one and they said it was clear a battle had taken place. Then the other group he redirected to check on the other missing men have failed to check in. He's tried to raise them on all the channels and he said Plo sensed trouble." Waxer spoke quickly. "They also got readings of roughly 600 heat sigs, all clustered together. There's no sign of what it is."

"Interesting. What did Comet and Boost say about the site where the missing men were last seen?" Obi-wan pondered thoughtfully.

"The men were taken alive in the case of their site. They said that was clear. They saw a patrol of commando droids, led by a human seppie. They didn't stick around to find out who it was or what they wanted." Waxer answered.

"My guess is nothing good." Added Boil.

"Did they get any other description of the human? Gender, hair color, distinctive armor, builds? Anything."

"No sir. All they saw was a human leading a patrol. We're not even sure if it was a patrol. They might have captured the first two men then come back to get anyone who came to look for them."

"Lovely. Where are Boost and Comet now?"

"General Plo sent them to investigate the heat sigs. He gave strict orders not to get caught."

"Well I'm glad it's the two of them. If anyone can avoid getting caught it will be them. Time to contact Plo. If those men were captured our timetable just got moved up extensively." Obi-wan ordered.

"Sir, they said they saw a gathering of about 600 hundred heat sigs. These numbers aren't adding up. We might not be saving just the 501st here. We have no idea what we're walking into." Cody pointed out.

"I know. Get me General Plo. We need to move while we still have a semblance of the element of surprise."

* * *

"How about you scream for me. Just a really big scream that's all we need. Then you can go back to your friends. Your hours with all of them are numbered you know. We're sending half of them to another camp in the morning." A voice spoke in the darkness.

Ahsoka took a deep breath and tried to clear the fog from her mind. She remembered Anakin saying he was proud of her. She remembered together the duo had managed to give Jif a headache. Was that Jif's voice she was hearing? It wasn't Anakin's voice. She bit her lip and tried to discern which of the seps was talking to her. Normally she had very little trouble telling people apart which came in handy in an army of clones. But for the life of her she could not tell if it was Taz or Ray.

"Why do you want me to scream?" She muttered.

"Why wouldn't I want you to scream?" The sep responded. "Come on kid, don't be stupid. I'm going to make you scream one way or another. Just do it now then you can go back to your people." Ahsoka heard a com buzz.

"Taz, what's taking so long? Light the bitch up." Ahsoka recognized Cià's voice,

"Gave you a chance kid." Taz clucked his tongue sympathetically and flipped a switch. Ahsoka heard someone screaming. It felt like every bone in her body was on fire and crumbling to bits. IT didn't even register that she was the one screaming. Taz flipped the switch again.

"Perfect. We're done here. Droids wait three hours then drag her to the mine. Don't touch her until then. What we have planned will provide sufficient entertainment."

Ahsoka's mind was spinning. Nothing was making sense and everything hurt.

Taz reached underneath the table she was strapped to (she was strapped to a table, that's why her wrists hurt. No wonder.) and pulled our small mic with a recorder attached. The pieces dropped into place.

"You're going to use that scream to torture Anakin aren't you?" She didn't even try to hide the misery in her voice.

"Yep. Get some sleep if you can. You're friends blew up the mine so guess what everyone gets to do tomorrow? Or should I say in a few hours. Night kid."

"MASTER IT'S NOT REAL. IT'S NOT REAL MASTER I'M FINE." Ahsoka shrieked.

"He can't hear you. But you'll be able to hear him." Taz grinned evilly. A thunderous roar of a yell rattled the cell. Ahsoka knew only one person who could do that. Anakin. Ahsoka tried to maneuver her mind around the force collar. _I'm fine, Anakin. it's ok. I'm ok._ Her efforts were met with pricks and fizzles from the collar but that was nothing compared to the pain she had just felt. _It's ok, Anakin. I'm ok. Taz isn't hurting me right now._ Ahsoka opened her eyes only to find that the cell was completely dark. Well not completely, there were a myriad of red dots all in a circle protruding from a corner. Video camera. Great. Taz's words came back to her. _Sleep._

No absoltultly not. One should not follow orders from a sadistic maniac that was currently holding you and your friends captive but her eyelids were drifting closed anyway. Another one of Anakin's screeches shook the cell. It was almost funny. Her master was so strong with the force that even a collar could barely hold him back.

He would be ok. He had to survive this. He survived everything the world through at him. Ahsoka felt the force swirl around her. It was a welcome presence considering she had been cut off due to the collar for the past several days. _I know you're ok Snips, but I have to make it look good don't I?_ A smile broke out over Ahsoka's face. He did it. Then the comforting sense of the force flew away from her once more, leaving Ahsoka alone with her own thoughts. Might as well sleep, her brain whispered. Yeah, might as well.

 **I'm so sorry. I genuinely am, I said I would update Saturday now here I am 4 months later. I have no excuse. Please have a non-cliffhanger ending as an apology. Shout out to Alyss Nighthawk, Sapphirestream, Guest, Lux's Sister, and GettingTraught for their amazing reviews. I have a really easy week thanks to Spring Break and no group practices for track. If I do not update by Sunday(one week after Easter) I have most likely been drafted into the Hunger Games and am writing in a notebook. After I win the Hunger Games, I will update. ( This chapter is marks a sweet 16 which makes it the longest thing I have ever written so there's that. Yay me.) Reviewers get shout outs. Love, Mack.**


	17. Throwback Tuesday(-1)

**Basically what's going on right now is I'm to stressed (shout out to finals and track) to advance this story but I know everyone is probably also stressed out (Yay to camaraderie) So this is a flashback of Ace and the gang ages before the 501** **st** **ever showed up. I hope this helps with stress. In terms of continuity I've been doing some work on character development in school and this story is many a solid 2 years before Rex, Ahsoka, and everyone else appear.**

"Ace, stop fidgeting or you're going to make a seppie come over here, said seppie will probably electrocute someone I have make it 6 days without being electrocuted and I'm going for 7." Wings muttered in a quiet tone all CO's knew to well. It was a normal morning in hell, lineups were underway and the sun was beating down way too intensely for 7am.

"Sorry sir, my leg hurts if I don't move it." Ace grunted. "But congrats on 6 days that is truly an accomplishment. We all strive to be like you." Beacon broke his perfect emotionless expression to let a ghost of a snicker cross his face.

"Beacon stop grinning. They will hurt us." Kicker reminded the group.

"How would moving help?" Breaker spat from the line in front.

"It could help stretch the muscles." Suggested Shockwave with a certain indifference. Everyone knew he wasn't really paying attention. Shockwave had his head in the clouds and he was flying some aircraft, free and away from any real tether. Forever the pilot.

"As a former medic a don't think there's much science behind that." Jumper commented, his bitterness practically tangible.

"Jumper, you're still a medic even if you don't wear a white cross on your shoulder." Kicker did his best to soothe.

"No I'm not I'm fucking useless. This place is just waiting to kill us and there basically nothing we can do-" Jumper bit back as he shifted his weight.

"Don't say that." Kicker pushed. "We're still us, no on can ever take that away. They can try but they'll fail."

"I'm just going to keep fidgeting then." Ace ended the discussion.

"This heat is ridicules. It's 7am. Does this planet not get how weather's supposed to work."? Kicker complained. "10 credits says we can't breathe in the mines today."

"Maybe this planet's weather doesn't get how you work? Ever thought of that? No, you only think of yourself and your own problems." Ace cackled then quickly quieted.

"All of you shut up." Hissed Wings. "Record, remember." Wings's reminder was needed but not as necessary as he would have thought. The dismissal bell finally rang.

"Kicker, I will not accept your bet because I know you have no money. Whatsoever." Ace explained. "So we'll just gamble for lunch?"

"Lunch is absolutely disgusting of course you can have some of mine. I would have shared no matter what. If we can breathe you can have some of my food, God, I worry about you sometime. How can you exist just thinking about food all the time?" Kicker grumbled. "I'd go crazy."

"We all have our methods. Besides I went crazy while they were questioning me last week. I don't know why they brought me back and not Sparks." Ace furthered. "He wanted me to let you all know that if anyone takes his bunk he'll kill us."

"I'm concerned with why they kept him and gave you back to us." Mused Wings.

"Probably because they know that when the two of them are together things go missing and stuff gets blown up." Breaker commented as their line began to move.

"Finally. Kicker and I have a full day of chained desk stuff to attend to and none of you are invited." Jumper said as he pulled Kicker away.

"Good. Say Hi to Ringo for me I haven't seen him in awhile." Whispered Beacon.

"And you probably won't be seeing him for awhile. There's a prisoner transfer tonight. He's on the list."

"I'll just sneak over, the tunnel in that direction is nearly complete anyway." Beacon tossed back. "See you soon."

"Remember when we used to skip work and swipe food and there were no shock collars and everything was great?" Jumper groaned as the duo began walking over to the main office building, passing rows of "barracks".

"Yes, and stuff will be that way again. You just have to have some hope bro." Kicker comforted.

"How do you know? We spend everyday chained to a desk and everyone else is either producing bombs to drop on our brothers on they're digging up metal to turn into battle droids. This is a no win situation Kick-y."

"Well, not everyone is chained to a desk, mining, or building bombs. There's always someone who's getting interrogated. Not mention we're not really chained to the desk, more a ring on the wall." Kicker tried to entice.

"Oh way to make me feel better." Jumper sneered.

"Just do what I do. Try to screw with one of them once a day." Kicker retorted.

"By that do you mean literally screw? As in undo the screws on their chairs like last week?" Jumper snickered at the memory.

"I have to make it interesting don't I?"

"Well I suppose you do, I though Ringo was going to die, his face...It was a mixture of complete disappointment yet uncontrollable pride. General Lyra would have been so proud."

"Do you think she misses us? I hope she's getting some sleep." Kicker remarked.

"Naw, she'd have noticed when her best fighting battalions were cruelly wretched away from her loving arms during a routine patrol mission gone wrong. She probably knows we're gone but, completely replaceable clones bro."

"The real question is if Wing's padawan friend is still breathing. " Kicker continued. "That kid did not look good when the dragged him out at lineup yesterday. What the hell have they been doing to him? I know they want us broken but do they have to hurt him. He seemed really cool."

"Interrogation. He saw his master executed. That does quite a number on a young mind. He's probably not eating well. Props to Wings though for simultaneously holding all four of his alive men back while also giving encouraging looks. That is a practiced art."

"Let's hope neither of us ever get good at it. Except the giving inspirational looks. I hope I get very good at that."

"Oh, we're here." Kicker announced this the way one would announce the arrival to the testing labs of Kamino during exam week. "Just screw with one of them, preferably the annoying one but I'm not gonna tell you how to live you life."

* * *

"Ha-ha, so it's humid enough that we can barely breathe but I think I saw a rain cloud so, call it a tie?" Breaker prompted to Ace as the two dragged a cart loaded with rocks up what seemed a 90-degree incline.

"Fine, I'm best off doing my betting with Sparks anyway. He never makes me pay up anyway."

"That is not how friends hold friends accountable. Friends forgive debts but they also keep tabs just in case everything magically gets better." Breaker suggested.

"When we magically get out of here I am going to owe so many people so many D-rations."

"If."

"If?"

"You said if. We could die here. It's not a possibility we like but it's a very real possibility. You saw Basthon yesterday. He's on his way out and we may be too." Breaker gently stated.

"If I am going to die here. Than this is going to be the best place to die and I will give them hell before they kill me."

"That's very nice but everyone we care about could die here. You need to realize that."

"Everyone I care about could've died any other day in battle, just like here. This is a battle too. What's the difference but the speed of the battles? The tunnels beneath these sorry excuses for barracks are almost complete. We can do loads of stuff once those are operational. "

"Just as long as you realize that not everyone will make it out of here. Every life you save is a victory even if its only your own. Sometimes that's all you can do." The duo finally managed to tug the cart out of the mineshaft and into the main sorting area.

"Shoot. There's a droid coming over here. Ignore it, maybe it'll go away." Ace muttered. Ace's hope did not go as he wished. Rather than ignoring them the seppie punched Ace in the stomach and knocked him out with its gun. The droid proceeded to drag Ace away.

"I'll admit I did not see that one coming." Commented Wings from behind Breaker. "He'll be fine. They're probably just going to interrogate him with Sparks again."

"Or maybe he'll see Basthon. He might be able to lift the kid's sprits."

"Maybe."

* * *

Jumper stared at the mug of coffee in his hand. It was so close, that miraculous drink that made everything better and made his bounce off the wall. Kicker had said to screw with one sep once everyday. Well day one was done. The requests black coffee, sep gets black coffee with 23 packets of sugar yet masqueraded under enough coffee grinds to do something truly extraordinary with those grinds. His medic training told him that that was not going to help the dear seps heart nor his stress level. That did not come out as poetic as it did in his head. Oh well. He was a medic who was chained to wall and daily forced to do office tasks. Might as well make the best of it.

 **School is important to me so this is the last update before school gets out. Then we'll finish this off. This story has been going on for more than a year so I think it might be time to wrap it up soon. An untold amount of thanks to everyone who has stuck with it this far. Good luck with exams or projects, life in general. Shoutouts to Fangirlinghorserider, si13ntm0n5t3r (x2), McAwesome, Teeter-Tottered, Lux's Sister, GettingTraught, and BuruPlays2 have a good night. Reviewers get shout outs.**


	18. Creative name later

"Typical Rex. Perfect records." Cody snickered as he shifted through the last reports from the 501.

"Typical Anakin. He's transcribed nothing. Just plans for building a speeder bike with a tic-tac-toe board etched in the corner. How many bodies should we be looking for?" Obi-wan grumbled.

"So if this is accurate, and you and I both know it is, then out of the 300 troops in 501st infantry roughly 100-120 was killed in conflict. That matches up with the bodies we found originally. No reinforcements were sent. "

"That leaves 280 of them unaccounted for. That's far to many to be desertion but capture and plague are where my thoughts wander."

"Right, but sir, wouldn't we have found bodies from plague?" Cody questioned.

"Not if they were disposed off. Yet it has to be capture that's the only possible explanation. But how are they keeping so many men contained? Especially young Tano, I've heard she and a few other Padawan's sneak out most nights. Yet there has never been a shred of evidence to support that."

"I've heard similar things about her and most of Rex's men. They must be hopelessly out of their league or they'd have found a way to message us better info."

"Indeed. Have the men Master Koon sent out on recon reported back yet?"

"Yes sir, 4 are missing but Comet and Boost reported a town like settlement with 600 heat sigs. Then they lost contact as well. "

"That's most like the main camp then. Did thy say multiple buildings or just one big one?"

"Multiple, sir. They're description was town-like." The holo-projecter crackled and Plo's form appeared.

"Greetings Master Kenobi. Commander Cody. Several of my scouts have reported similar findings to that of Sinker and Boost."

"How many?"

"Four more to be exact. All contain north of 600 heat signatures. "

"Good God, what have we stumbled upon?" Obi-wan murmured. Anakin's message had mentioned there were others- yet nothing could have predicted an operation of this scale.

"We did not stumble. We were led here by the force or by the intuition of the padawans back at the temple." Plo continued his speech about the merits of the force. Obi-wan glanced at the holo-map in front of him.

"This jailbreak will take more than our combined men, Master Plo."

"You forget Anakin's legion already dwells inside." Plo countered.

"Weapons" Cody mouthed to Obi-wan.

"They'll be unarmed and we don't know how many of them are still alive."

"A fair point. Shall I radio Master Secura?"

"An operation of this caliber needs to be cleared with the council."

"I agree. We'll convene an emergency session in a half hour."

Cody nodded along but inside he was writhing. Yes, discipline was important-meetings were great but General Skywalker was in trouble, Commander Tano was in trouble. Rex was in trouble. Who knows how many more men were in trouble and everyone was acting calm and orderly. Military Discipline be damned. Cody was about to voice his concerns with Kenobi when Obi-wan spoke first.

"We are not waiting for the council. To rescue an Anakin, you must think like an Anakin. Send out a few of our men on patrols. See in contact can be made with anyone in those places. Err on the side of caution though."

"Sir, with all due respect-wouldn't 'thinking like an Anakin' involve blowing up the gates, giving an inspiring speech, then sleeping through the debrief?"

"No that's acting like an Anakin."

"I'll take care of it sir."

"Thank you Cody."

* * *

When Ahsoka opened her eyes she momentarily forgot where she was. Those blissful 2 seconds were interrupted by Echo offering her a ration bar. She took it gratefully and only then did the question of how she got from the interrogation building to the barrack.

"They tossed you in about an hour ago. And Commander, there's news. It's not good." Only then did Ahsoka realize most of her men were avoiding her gaze. Fives and Echo sat on either side of her but everyone else was keeping their distance. Rex was nowhere to be seen.

"Please just tell me." Ahsoka stated. "I can take it. Oh, it's Rex isn't it? He's not here. What happened?"

Fives took a deep breath and glanced to Echo. "No. Rex is fine. They grabbed him when they brought you back. He said to tell you hi."

"Then what is it?" Ahsoka demanded. Echo nervously played with a pouch on his belt. Rex had made them promise to tell her. He had wanted to do it himself but the seps would not allow that as per usual.

"Commander, they're going to execute General Skywalker 3 days." Fives whispered

"What. No there has to be a mistake. Where did you guys hear this?"

"Ace and Rex hacked the seps computer. And I helped them decode it myself. I'm so sorry." Echo murmured.

"There has to be something we can do." Ahsoka rambled. "We can break in, we can blow something up, and Master Kenobi will come..."

"Commander, there's nothing."

"Ahsoka." She muttered.

"What." Echo strained.

"My name is Ahoska. If we're out of the war then I might as well lose the title too." She set her head down in her hands and tried to avoid blinking tears. Echo rubbed her shoulder gently.

"Don't give up hope yet." Fives prompted. "Maybe we can figure something out."

"If there were a way out someone would have found it by now. There have been Jedi here before but now they're gone. Anakin's next on the list and I'll be soon after."

"Hey it might not be you next. Maybe it'll be Fives." Echo suggested. "Or me, or Coric, or hey, maybe they'll take Speed out for us."

"Heard that" Speed grumbled from his bunk below the trio.

"Yes. I know. Anyway, sleep is a good idea."

"How is sleep a good idea?" Ahsoka begged. "We need to stage a breakout. Or burn the place down. Or even-"

"You're scrambling." Retorted Fives. "You're also a growing teenager and teenagers need sleep."

"I just slept." Ahsoka grumbled.

"We have to clean out a fragging collapsed mine at 5am, you need more sleep." Fives countered.

"Well, you two do. I get chained to a wall again." Echo sassed.

"Yeah apparently, he's prodigal at being a secretary." Fives explained with sarcasm to Ahsoka.

"It has nothing to do with that, countered Echo. I just don't have any tattoos on my face and I look slightly less threatening than everyone else."

"Yeah, I've noticed that. Why? You're all clones of the same guy so why do you look less threating than everyone else?" added Ahsoka.

"I don't know, but it drives me crazy. Anyway, I have an idea for how we can save the general."

"Long shot or short shot?" Fives questioned.

"It does not even qualify as a shot." Echo explained. "It relies on droid incompetence and really just all around stupidity on the seps part. And the rumor that they hate each other."

"That sounds kind of promising." Ahsoka grimaced. "But don't tell, If we jinx this Anakin's dead."

"Sleep." Begged Fives.

"Fine. But this bunk is mine."

"No it isn't. I already carved my name on it." Fives spat back. "Look."

"Ok then. I'll just heft myself up a whole another bunk level." There was hope they could save Anakin. Ahsoka felt her normal snippy self-coming back. She dropped her legs over the side of the bunk and dead lifted herself up another level.

"I'm carving my name up here, then." Ahsoka declared. Fives and Echo met each other's eyes. Their Commander was back. There general-her mentor- was to be executed and she was holding onto a distant hope that he was savable. If Echo's trick worked, whatever it was (and he refused to discuss it around anyone because of the bugged barracks) worked then it would be a miracle. If it didn't, then, they would have to deal with a heartbroken teen all the while trying to stay alive. Echo seemed optimistic, and most of his ideas were decent if not a bit outlandish.

"What's the play?" Fives breathed in a whisper to his brother.

"I'll screw with their calendar. Create a fake order to hold the execution. That main sep, the woman? She never talks to anyone outside of her immediate circle so if I just pass along a fake order from her then theoretically General Skywalker would be safe. What do you think?"

"It's a shot. If you get caught, you're dead. You and the general."

"He's a cool guy. I'm down for dying next to him." Echo commented. Fives rolled his eyes and tried to get comfortable along the hard wood bench.

"You think Leap's ok? What about the other shinnies?" Echo murmured.

"I don't need a watch to know it's after midnight now based solely upon that comment."

"All conversations get deep after midnight. What do you think?" Echo prompted.

"I think our shines are no longer shinnies."

"Yeah."

* * *

Cody flipped through reports to give his hands something to do.

"Will you stop that? You're driving me crazy." Ordered Wolffe.

"I'm sorry I'm nervous that this whole plan won't get approved by the council and we'll have to leave Rex to die." Cody ranted.

"That won't happen. Plo's going after them no matter what, he just thought it might be nice to check the boxes."

"Excellent. How are your men dealing with all of this by the way?"

"Urg, You guys need to put chairs out here so when the Jedi have their secret meetings, there's somewhere to sit." Groaned Wolffe. "But, when we found the it was the 501 who went missing, we threw a party."

"Seriously?" Cody argued.

"No, we were actually really upset. We can be a little protective over Tiny Tano." Wolffe explained with a ghost of a smile over his face.

Oh yeah, I always forget you guys are friends."

"Everyone does."

The doors to the bridge slid open with an eerie hiss.

"Good news," Obi-wan began, "We're to continue recon. Master Windu's coming as well and Master Luminara is apparently being dragged along by Barriss.

"I can not say I am surprised." Plo continued. Even with General Skywalker's men on the inside, I see now a successful jailbreak would be unlikely."

"I agree." Obi-wan jumped back in. "We would just sustain heavy casualties before being captured ourselves."

"We'll get more teams out on recon." Cody suggested.

"Have any of the previously unresponsive teams called back in?" Plo asked.

"No sir, I think it's best to assume they've been captured."

"That worries me. Now the separatists know we're here." Plo realized.

"We'll tell everyone else to be more careful. But more importantly we need to get a man into one of those camps to figure out what is going on." Obi-wan concurred.

"To bad we can't just ask." Muttered Wolffe. "Wait, Isn't Commander Tano brilliant with constructing signals?"

"She's created successful broadcasters with little to no supplies on several occasions, yes." Plo answered, "What are you thinking Wolffe?"

"If General Skywalker got a message through, she might have sent a signal as well. But we might have not been listening. Check the logs." The group raced onto the bridge and all four pulled out listed manifests.

"What are we looking for?" Cody asked.

"You'll know it if you see it." Obi-wan answered.

"Got it!" Plo cried out. "Someone-probably Ahsoka- broke apart something electric, and wired a radio transmitter."

"Wouldn't other parts be needed? No, I apologize I had forgotten the kleptomaniac tendencies of everyone in blue." Obi-wan commented.

"I say we radio back." Plo muttered. "This is our best chance at recon."

"Agreed."

Down on the planet's surface, a majority of Torrent Company woke to the faintest chirping of their homemade transmitter.

* * *

Cià was seething. In the past 8 hours, North Camp had captured four men patrolling the woods outside their camp. Taz did what he could to calm her but even he was powerless.

"Gather the guards." She ordered in between flipping tables. "When the republic comes they'll find broken clones and bodies. We're moving the Jedi's execution up."

"Which jed-" Taz tried to ask the logical question but Cià screamed back.

"BOTH, WE'LL SLAUGHTER THEM BOTH! Blood will flow through he streets of the compound."

Ray observed this all from his spot in the door. "And when the republic comes," He grinned. "We'll tell them that they were the ones who moved up the timetable."

"What's going to happen to us?" Jif asked.

"What do you think?" Cià sneered. "We'll be put on trial and tossed into prison, unless-"

"Unless?"

"You know what that unless is."

 **So it's been awhile. Life decided to throw 4 curveballs. Next update will be this Sunday. Shout outs to Lux's Sister, 5, and the anons that reviewed. Also shout outs to CatBludger3903, Sapphirestream, and Alyss Nighthawk. In my haste to share this, I did not proof read so if you see an error then mentally edit it to whatever makes sense.**


End file.
